


Parentages

by VeryImpressive



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Gen, Genderbending, Non-Explicit Sex, Redemption, Romance, Tragedy, War, genderbent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-24 17:29:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4928671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeryImpressive/pseuds/VeryImpressive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU; femObi-Wan: Forced to raise the child of the man that she loved, Obi-Wan Kenobi has raised Luke Skywalker with relative ease for the past five years. But with Luke's sibling dying, Obi-Wan and Luke rush to Alderaan and set in motion a chain of events that will change the course of Galactic History.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Five Standard Years after the death of Padme Amidala**

I had many regrets in my life.

Looking back at the past few decades and knowing what I know now, it was fairly easy for me to pinpoint where I went wrong and I had to admit that in the first few years of my isolation, I had wallowed in the misery of it. No matter how much control I exercised over my emotions and no matter how attuned to the Force I had become in those early years, I couldn't help but dwell and brood over the past. It hadn't been primarily a matter of the Dark Side of the Force against the Light Side of the Force for me, as it had been for Master Yoda – it had been far too personal. I blamed myself for the monumental social and political change that had engulfed the galaxy in a matter of days, and I knew I had a hand in the tectonic shift in the Force itself as well. I was responsible for him and he had turned into a monster.

When news stories of Darth Vader appeared on the Holonet and the magnitude of his crimes was taken in, I couldn't help but blame myself. Sure, that madman that Anakin called his master had unleashed the temperament that I had long suspected lay within him, but I couldn't help but wonder if I had been responsible for that temperament to begin with. I shouldn't have seen it coming, I shouldn't have let him slip away from me like that – I shouldn't have given him the impression that I didn't care about him. In fact, I cared about him more than a Master should for their Padawan – of course I hid those feelings from him, but was it the intentional distance that I put there that did it? Was it that? Or was it the fact that he had a wife and children on the side and he was too sure that I would throw him out the airlock because of that? I had asked myself that same question far too many times.

Perhaps it was his mother's death that started it, or even before that at the death of Qui-Gon? Perhaps his fall to the Dark Side of the Force had been a long and slow fall – and I didn't see it. I had failed him, not the Jedi, not the Republic – I had failed him, the fault was entirely mine and it would be something that I would carry for the rest of my life. I just wished that he would listen to me, one more time, I just wanted to tell him that I was sorry, whatever good it would do, I wasn't sure of, I just wanted him to know it. Whatever I did, or whatever he thought I did to ruin his life, I wanted him to know that I would give anything to take it back and to make him understand that I loved him and underneath the repression of my feelings for him, I would have moved stars for him just to see the smile on his face.

Of course, the revelation that he was married and was expecting children had shattered my reasoning that I couldn't love him. It also exposed something that I really didn't like to admit too, I was jealous of her, and regrettably, I was even extremely jealous of Senator Amidala on her deathbed – because she got to have something that I never would, she got to have him. But those feeling aside, I stood by her, held her hand and made her a promise that her children would be protected and I promised her that I would never lose faith that somewhere under that veneer of armor and hate, he was still Anakin Skywalker, the father of her children and the most important thing in my life for nearly fourteen years. When she died, I felt an unimaginable guilt come up within me – again, regardless of how logical my self-deprecation was, I blamed myself for Anakin falling to the Dark Side and I blamed myself for her death, she had been the innocent party in all off this drama. Their kids were the most innocent of all us, and that's why they needed to be protected.

As I leaned back against the tree on the bank of the lake and grinned at the swathe of giggling children splashing in the lake, my eyes found him and a grin came to my face at his exuberance. Luke Skywalker, or as he was known to everyone else, Luke Varsin, had his father's face and his mother's temperament. With his father's hair and eyes, he was very much the image of him, but he lacked the impulsiveness of his father and carried the diplomatic nature of his mother. He was such a caring and devoted little boy, and as much as it was horrible to think this, I was glad that the Force had seen fit to force me to take care of the boy. The original plan was simple, his sister, Leia, would go to Bail Organa. Master Yoda, the Senator and I were in complete agreement that she would be sufficiently safe there with him.

We were in complete agreement with Luke's planned arrangement too – but after I arrived on Tatootine with Luke, fully intending to deliver him to his Uncle and Aunt, I nearly lost him. Coming upon the Lars Moisture farm that day had been the closest I had come to being exposed – the charred remains of the farm were swarming with Imperial Troops, and obviously, being left with no choice, I turned and I didn't look back. It was daunting task, but I promise his mother that I would do it – and I did, I went all out for it, focusing on one thing, Luke's wellbeing and protection. I knew that in the back of my mind that their collision would be inevitable, Luke would be a powerful practitioner of the Force when he was older, but for now, at this age especially, I would not allow Vader or his master to twist Luke. I would take care to not have a repeat of the mistakes that I made with Anakin – I would make it clear that Luke was loved, and that he could always come to me. But that avenue of thought led back to his father and the guilt came back.

I didn't allow myself to even absorb the impact of yet even more innocent lives taken because of my failings with Anakin, and I immediately went back to the spaceport, communicated with Senator Organa and he was the only reason that I wasn't left destitute, taking care of a baby and trying not to get killed. The breathe of Bail's generosity was enormous, he furnished me with a ship, a yearly transfer of credits and he pulled strings to have a new, fully fledged, brand new identity created around me. I was no longer Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi – I was now Ailla Varsin, the last surviving heir to an influential mining family Alderaan. It explained the ship, the money and it allowed me to be rid of my last name, I knew that if I would have continued to go by it, somehow, someway, it would reach Darth Vader.

I grew my hair back out to a length that it was while I was a Padawan, I had to start wearing makeup, I had to total reinvent myself in order to protect that little boy. I shed my robes and my lightsaber for the typical female attire, I forced myself to learn things that I once thought were completely inane. One day, I went from being a Jedi Master to a single mother, traveling from one safe planet to another, and living in the yacht in the intermediate times. It was a stark transformation, but with all of those changes and through almost constant clamping of my Force Presence, I had done it and I would continue to do it until it was safe for me to at least allow someone of my old self back into my life. Luke was five years old and I knew that it would be sometime before I could begin to teach him and then, only then, would allow it. Until then, I was Ailla Varsin and nothing more.

We never stayed in one place for more than six months – I worked any secretarial position that I could find, something that paid well enough for me to rent an apartment and enough to buy food that was good enough for Luke and that was in a safe part of a usually crowed city. I had long since realized that when we stayed on the more known worlds, it would be prudent to live in a crowded population so that any force user would have a difficult time picking up even a slight movement made from either myself or Luke in the Force. With Bail's credits covering everything else, we had settled into a stable pattern that would suffice until I could find a safe place for us to settle down so that he could finally have a stable life. But I knew it would be a very long time until then, there were reports every other day of entire enclaves of Jedi being wiped out by Vader – and until the purges stopped, I would need to be on the move with him. The only thing that kept me from trying to stop Vader myself was his son, and the guilt that I had at the thought of my friends and the people I considered my family being wiped out was Luke, again.

Standing up and running my hand through my hair, I brushed it over my shoulder and I sighed – we had to go. Trema was a beautiful planet, along the lines of Naboo, and it was spared most of the Imperial occupations that other planets had received. That was partly because of the fact that a lot of Imperial Aristocrats inhabited this planet and because the Government of Trema had allowed the Empire to establish a defense hub on this planet for the entire sector. It really was a family planet by most accounts, lacking the lawlessness and the desolateness of most planets in the Outer-Rim, and the urban, fast paced and heavily Imperial Controlled planets in the Inner-Rim and the Core. If things settled down quickly enough, I would probably bring Luke back here – one day, hopefully, I could do it.

But for now, we had to leave, we were due of Alderaan, Bail had contacted me only a few hours ago and told me to come to his home as quickly as possible. There had been an underlying since of fear in his voice, but nothing suggested that it was so urgent that I couldn't allow Luke a little time to do what he loved before we left for Alderaan. Luke, loving the water like his father, had begged me if he could go swimming a little while before we left and unable to resist him, I relented. The boy had an around him that was just infectious, and even in the moments where I was convinced that we would be caught, he made it that much easier. I don't know what I would be doing now if Beru and Owen Lars hadn't been destroyed by the Empire.

As my beckoning gesture to Luke caught his attention, I smiled as he pouted and slowly took his time getting out of the water. He loved space, he talked all of the time of flying, but we also loved the months when we didn't have to live on the yacht. I wish I could move time forward so that he could live on a planet like this without the overwhelming fear of being found by the "bad men" – but for now, it would be something that we would both have to bear. When he trudged up to me, his swim shorts budged up around his legs and water dripping off of his body, I crouched down to my knees as he continued to wear his seemingly trademarked, adorable pout. "Mama, I don't wanna go, can't we stay just a little bit longer?"

I leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead, I wish that he had it better, but I hope that he understood that in the end this was for the best. One day, it would be a better place. "I'm afraid not – we have to go to Alderaan, but I know that they have swimming pools in the Palace, perhaps you could swim with the Princess?"

Luke and Leia were not aware of their connection – not yet, Bail and I both agreed that it was best to keep that hidden. And regardless of the fact that Bail and I took great care to keep them off of the same planet together for extended periods of time, they still became close friends. And when his face light up at the mention of his sister and the swimming pool, he suddenly grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the changing rooms. Laughing, I allowed the little boy to pull my hand and I made sure to remember the emotions and the lightheartedness of this moment. I didn't get a lot of them nowadays, so as I used the key that I got when I paid for use of his little locker to open it and pulled his travel clothes out of it. I tried to take it in, and as he departed into one of the stalls and I told him to make sure not to get his travel clothes wet, I smiled – I only wished his parents could see this.

' _That poor boy…'_ I thought morosely.

And because of thoughts like that, I stood resolute to raise the boy with all of the love in the world, protect him from the evils of the galaxy, and to train him so that one day he could restore the galaxy to at least a freer place. That was his future regardless if I wanted it for him, I only had to make these years the best for him.

* * *

**Several hours later…**

**Five Parsecs away from Alderaan…**

Breathing deeply in and out, trying my best center myself, I reflected on the past hour of my thoughts. There was nothing that prepared you for the moment that I had experienced. Leia was not my daughter, I didn't know her that well, but along with so many other things, I felt that I had failed her in some way. I had expected her have a far easier life then compared to her brother, she was going to have the lifestyle of Alderaan Royalty, but Luke had never been put in this position. I could count on one hand the amount of times that Luke could ever have been called sick.

When I contacted Bail to tell him that we were on are way, I was very glad that I had put Luke to bed so that he couldn't see the utter shock that had come over my face. I had to calm myself down because at the moment I felt utterly helpless at what he had told me. Leia was dying, she had become heavily anemic, she had been unconscious for about a day and the only reason that she hadn't died yet was because of the constant medical care. They didn't know what exactly was wrong with her, but they suspected that what she needed a blood transfusion and their in lay the problem, because her blood type was AB negative. Bail didn't have that, no one that he knew had that, I didn't have that, and Luke didn't have that, there were only two people that I knew who had that blood type. One of them was dead, long dead, and the other, well the other would be a problem – the other was Darth Vader – Leia's biological father. It was where she got the extremely rare blood type and the sinking feeling in my gut told me that it was the only place that we knew we could get the transfusion from because he was the safest source to get it from.

Still on my knees, meditating in the cockpit of the yacht, I knew that I was risking detection by even the most mediocre Force user in close proximity. I just had to touch Leia in the force, just to let her know that we were doing our very best to try and get her out of this, for comfort. And when I found the small, but still very distinct presence in the Force, I gently touched it and I was struck by how weak she felt. She was still clinging to life, just barely, but of all of the times that I had felt her presence, she had never felt this way. Gently sending calming waves at her through the Force, I broke the connection as quickly as I made it. It was very much an intentional move, because I realized that I had made a very, very bad mistake.

It was only for a moment and it was quick enough for the presence to only feel me and not have a firm lock on where I was, but we had felt each other long enough. I knew who the presence was – it was a presence that I had felt in my life constantly until five years ago. It was the presence of Anakin Skywalker, cloaked in the hate and the anger of Darth Vader. The formally bright, burning and wonderful presence of my former student was now a dark, sticky presence, cloaked in hate and anger and I thanked the Force that I had pulled away just in time. I grimaced, realizing that he more than likely had detected me, but he hadn't detected where I was or where I was going and that was the best thing that I could hope for at this moment. Perhaps nothing would come of it, perhaps I was wrong, maybe it was only an irrational, paranoid fear, but I had a very bad feeling about this situation.

* * *

**Nine Parsecs away...**

**The Imperial Star Destroyer Exactor…**

My eyes snapped open and I took in the interior of my hyperbaric chamber, just to make sure that she wasn't waiting in ambush to finish what she started. But as soon as I realized that I was completely alone, as usual, I relaxed, as much as I could and began to ponder on what had just happened. It was not unusual five years later for me to still feel Jedi in the Force when I probed it, normal procedure dictated that I direct my fleet to their location in the Force and deal with them. But this Jedi was one that I knew I would have the most problems finding, if I ever found her. Beyond everything, beyond Darth Vader, she knew me from a time I no longer liked to acknowledge, she knew how I thought, she knew how I acted and she most definitively knew how to avoid me, but I had felt her, for only a second.

It was not even directed at me, but regardless of the time and all of the actions committed between now and the last time we had seen each other: I was still firmly attuned to the Force presence of Obi-Wan Kenobi. While still deep in my sleep that was still more Force enhanced then anything, I felt something akin to the gentle brush of her hand against my cheek and my shock was what caused me to snap out of my sleep at an instant. I hadn't felt or even heard a whisper of her existence in five years and since the last time I saw her, walking me away and condemning me to this… life, if you could call it to that, I had always hungered for revenge in the back of my mind. I knew that she wasn't dead – no matter how much intelligence and my master had tried to convince otherwise, I just knew that she was still out there. I might have been Sith and I might have turned my back on those days a long time ago, but some of my connections with her would never be severed and I know I would have felt it if she would have died. For the first time in years, I had felt her, she had slipped and now it was only a matter of time until she did it again.

Over the past five years, Obi-Wan was one of those Jedi that I knew it would take specific and personal care to find – but my time was diverted in other places and I had relied on some of the best Bounty Hunters that I could find. No matter the bounty, no matter the months that they spend trying to find her – even the most voracious Bounty Hunters could not find her. They, like the rest had tried to convince me that she was dead and just as I was beginning to think that I would never have the chance to get my hands on her again, she did this. But still, that would make it no easier, unlike the other Jedi and unlike the seditious enemies of the Empire that I was almost always ordered to hunt, this one knew me better.

I knew her very well, I spent all of my formative years with her, I had grown up with her, she was… well, in that intervening decade between Padme, she did have an effect on me. I was not so foolish or blind not to admit that she was a very attractive woman and there had been a time when I gave serious thought to what it would be like to be with her. But Obi-Wan was a staunchly conservative Jedi, and I had married Padme and nothing was ever born of it. But the point was that I had studied her so much and spent so much time with her over the years that I knew how she thought and the reason that the connection ended so quickly was easily explainable. She had felt my presence, there was no other explanation, it must have been the first time in years that we were ever in close proximity to each other and considering that she had no way of knowing where I was, I knew that she hadn't done this on purpose. She miscalculated with whatever she was attempting to reach out and feel in the Force – but she had been smart enough to pull away.

And she pulled away fast – fast enough to where I she was able to remain hidden.

Contemplating contacting the bridge and giving the other for the fleet to halt, I looked back to the walls of the chamber and took as deep of a breath as I could to steady my nerves. I had two options, I could contact the Emperor, confer with him on what my course of action should be, and he most likely would dismiss it and order me to return to the Capital, or I could send word of being held up out here and use that time to search for Obi-Wan. Of course my instincts were telling me to go ahead with the first one, but my need to find her was so strong that it overrode my sense of judgment. This was the first time in so many years that I had left that clam, resolute and… comforting presence and I would not abandon it. Obi-Wan must die, she took everything from me, including three of my limbs, no… there would be no retreat, I would remain here until I detected her again or I figured it out.

It was time that this ended.

 


	2. Chapter Two

**The medical wing of the Palace of the Royal Family of Alderaan…**

* * *

My family had been on Alderaan for over twenty seven thousand years, and, more or less, we had been ruling the planet for the past several thousand years. The countless heads of my family had guided the House of Organa and Alderaan through countless crises. They had guided our family and planet through war upon war and even when hope seemed the darkest, they still prevailed. But this was no crisis, this was no war or social upheaval, this was something else entirely. Looking through the window into the observation room where Leia lay, unconscious, frail, weak and pale, but alive nonetheless, I felt a chill go up my spine at that horrible thought. Of all of the people in the Galaxy, she didn't deserve this, she had lost her mother and in a sense, she had lost her father – my wife and I tried to compensate with that by making her want for nothing, but it would mean nothing if she died.

I knew that there was no real point in calling Obi-Wan back here to Alderaan, the logical part of my mind knew that it would nothing for her; she would need an intensive blood transfusion with someone she had a genetic similarity and blood type match with. Luke had been my first consideration, but Obi-Wan had dashed that hope and it gave me such a sinking feeling in my gut had to brace myself in an attempt not to fall over. I had run through all of the possibilities of how Leia could get the transfusion, I had even briefly considered trying to get into contact with Padme's family on Naboo – but then I remembered that they were not aware that she had given birth to the children. It left one person, the only person that was suitable for it and he was one of only two people that I had tried to hide her from.

Perhaps that's why I had called Obi-Wan back her, no matter how much I thought otherwise, I knew that Darth Vader could kill me in an instant and take her. That wasn't to say that Obi-Wan could tame him or even defeat him, but all of our safety stood a better chance if she were here when I finally made that communication. I had pulled strings within the Intelligence service, strings that would undoubtedly be severed soon enough, and I had gotten my hands on Vader's personal communication frequency. If I was going to do this, which it was increasingly looking like I would, then I knew it would be Vader's business and his alone. I was taking a risk going on that assumption, this entire maneuver could backfire, Obi-Wan and I would be dead and those children would be in the hands of the Emperor.

Looking back up to Leia's slow breathing from that bed, I frowned and I knew that I had to take a chance. It was simply hope that was making me believe that he would not be so monstrous as to rip his children away from their lives and turn them into what he became. The large, swirling ball of anxiety and fear in the pit of my stomach made me want to get it over with now, but I knew that I had to wait, I knew that I couldn't afford to have Vader here and not have at least some protection, and that would come in the form of Obi-Wan. I hadn't exactly let her in on my plan to bring Vader here, and I knew she would have the obvious reservations, but once I convinced her that it was quite possibly the only way we could save Leia's life – then… then she would acquiesce and then I could contact him. I leaned forward and pressed a button on the communication panel under the observation window, I had been constantly keeping track of Obi-Wan's ship.

"Location?" I asked my com officer, who was on the other side of the place.

"They entered the system twenty minutes ago," He replied and I felt a wave of relief, I would not have to wait long for her then. "It will be several hours…"

I nodded, not quite ready to finally take a breath after being in such a state of worry ever since Breha and I had found Leia in this condition in her bed. No matter what genetics said or who fathered her, the girl was my daughter, I had raised her and I had intended on raising her without interruption. It had seemed unlikely only days ago, but when the time came and when Leia discovered who her real father was, and if she wanted to have some sort of relationship with him, if that were even possible anymore, then I would not stand in her way. But she was a five year old girl, she was her mother's daughter yes, but she had yet to understand the complexities of the Galaxy that she was born into. I had hoped that this moment would have come later, when she was grown enough to understand, but it was happening now. I had to tell Vader in order to save Leia, and if I was running the risk of ruining her life and ending mine, then so be it – that's what parents did.

"Understood, when they prepare to land, contact me directly," I ordered quietly.

I was not composed and I did not trust myself to speak without losing what control I had left over my voice. And when the com officer acknowledged my command, I leaned back in my chair and I didn't take my eyes off of my daughter. Breha had tried to get me to leave multiple times, and even though it had worked once so that I could eat and bathe, I didn't intend on leaving her. She needed to know that a lot of people loved her and a lot of people would sacrifice everything to make sure that she stayed alive and to make sure that she was safe. If my plan went exactly how I wanted it too, I would be risking everything, but something was telling me that it would pay off. All of it, Alderaan, Leia, myself, Obi-Wan, Luke – it would all hinge upon Darth Vader's capacity to have a heart for his sick, small and dying daughter.

* * *

**Star Destroyer Exactor…**

**Darth Vader's Private Quarters…**

In the end, the instinct that my master had instilled in me had won out and I had contacted him after several hours of holding position at the location in which I felt her presence. It did not matter to the Emperor, as I expected – he had tasked me with wiping out the last remaining strongholds of the Jedi, but individual Jedi were not my targets. I was under the belief that if the Sith could lay in hiding for hundreds of years, silently subverting the Jedi – the Jedi themselves were capable of the very same thing. Their methods might have been more passive and thus less effective, but over time – their teachings could be passed down and they could haunt us for decades to come. All of the Jedi needed to be exterminated, right now.

But he didn't see it that way, other than the large pockets that I had virtually exterminated all together, individual Jedi were not a threat in his eyes. Obi-Wan and Yoda were not dead, but he didn't consider them dangerous, he believed that he had achieved so much power and so much protection that he was untouchable. I felt that this was an invitation for the Jedi to destroy the Empire and in his typically patronizing attitude that he taken with me in the recent years, he simply told me to be mindful on the task at hand and to not let distractions from the past cloud my judgment. But I was adamant in my desire to hunt Obi-Wan down and crush her.

"Revenge is a potent, it fuels well, my friend, but it is not lasting," He lectured me as I kneeled before his image on the holo-projector of my quarters. But just as I was expecting him to tell me to disregard it and return to the Capital, a strangely thoughtful expression crossed his wrinkled and scared visage. I knew that there was now a chance of getting my way. "She was alarmed and fearful you said?"

I nodded, "She wasn't trying to be detected, something felt… wrong with her."

He raised an eyebrow at me and I knew that I was about to me mocked. My relationship with him was not as it once was, and I was no fool, now that he had his ultimate power, he had no need to act like he once did with me. His question hit a nerve, but I controlled myself. His face dissolved into a distasteful sneer and I knew that he trying to probe my mind. He had been aware of my feelings for both my wife and Obi-Wan, "How touching, could it be that you still have feelings for her?"

' _That was a very long time ago…'_ I gritted my teeth, but I responded to him with an answer that I knew would pacify him, "No matter how much time has passed, I know how she thinks and I know what she feels when she opens herself to the Force. She has hidden herself from me very well, and this may be my last chance."

"Very well," He put his neutral mask back on and blew out a melodramatic breath, as if this wasn't even worth his time. "You've done exemplary work with the Jedi Enclaves along the Outer-Rim, so with that in mind I suppose that you've earned some time to explore this  _feeling_. You will instruct the Inquisitors to enforce Order 66 and you will send your fleet to Devaron, our  _"allies"_ need our assistance with uprising. Your Star Destroyer will remain under your personal command for this time, and you will return if you are needed, is that understood Lord Vader?"

I nodded, feeling grateful to have even being sparred this time and bowed my head to his hologram. I would need to be quick about this, in these volatile times, with uprisings springing up all over the place, I couldn't be gone long. "Yes my master."

* * *

Their fear of me was intoxicating and I took particular enjoyment in it when I passed by an officer who was trying desperately not have a nervous breakdown at the sound of my approach. Walking off of the turbolift, I took long commanding strides into the Command Salon on the bridge and locked eyes with the Captain of my flagship, Captain Ryal Daraac. He immediately dropped his conversation with out of the communication officers monitoring the fleet and turned to stand at attention in front of me. He was a capable man, cunning, vicious and most of all, he wasn't a tactical imbecile like many of his peers. He had proven very useful in these past few months as we attempted to ramp up and hopefully destroy the Jedi Order.

"Lord Vader?" He questioned, still standing at attention and waiting for me.

"Send a message to the Fleet Captains to break formation and set their course for Devaron at maximum velocity," I ordered, hooking my fingers into my belt while I relayed the Emperor's orders to him, I felt confusion radiate from him. I knew that he'd want an explanation for these strange orders. "Send a personal communication to Grand Inquisitor Torbin; tell him that he and the others are under the Emperor's direct orders to begin enforcing Order 66 while I am preoccupied with other things."

Captain Daraac, a middle aged human male, had that look about him that told anyone looking at him that he had spent most of his life in the Military. The hardened face, the obedient and loyal attitude, he was indeed useful to me. But as I finished relaying these new orders, his mask broke for only a moment and he regarded me skeptically before it sealed back up, "If I might ask the reasoning?"

"We're on a special assignment," I told him, not willing to divulge any details to him at the moment. This search for Obi-Wan could go nowhere very quickly and I didn't want him to know about it until I was sure. "I want you to harvest the travel surveillance for this sector, the movements of every ship through this sector mapped out for me and presented to me within the twenty hours, is that clear?"

It was a lot of work, but I suspected that they could do it, and when he nodded without question, I added one more thing, I did need solitude to search for her Force trail, "I will be in my quarters until your assignment is completed and you are only to disturb me in the event of an attack or a communication from the Emperor."

"Yes my lord," He nodded and without another word, I turned and departed.

I was no fool, I could not underestimate Obi-Wan for any reason – she had proven herself time and time again to be a formidable opponent, and not just to me. There had been a time when I wished that instead of leaving me to this fate, she would have just killed me to put me out of my misery. There were severe injuries covering all parts of my body, or what real parts of my body I had left, considering that she had taken my legs and my remaining natural arm away from me. I had no wish to die, but in the immediate aftermath of my imprisonment in this suit, it had been my wish to turn back time and beg her to kill me. But that time was over now and I had long since turned the absolute misery and rage I found myself into a fuel for my power. It had taken some effort, but I had mastered the technique of numbing the pain that I was in and using the Dark Side of the Force to compensate for it all.

The Jedi were all but destroyed, from numbers in the tens of thousands to only a few hundred at best, the Force had quieted significantly. With large exertions of power, it was fairly easy to detect the user and that's how I knew Obi-Wan could not have exercised her considerable power. I would have felt it and my master would have felt it as well and that's why I knew it would be not necessarily easier to defeat her, but easier to detect her because she had hidden herself inside of the Force. If I searched hard and far enough, I would be able to detect her even small use of the Force if she had indeed opened herself back up to it as I suspect she did.

* * *

_**Seven standard years ago…** _

_**Tuerto, Brema Sector…** _

_Cutting through another one of the blasted droids, on my backhand swing, I deflected a blaster bolt from another and sent it flying right back at him. We had been on this accursed planet for three and a half weeks and I had to admit that I was feeling fairly fowl at this point, I hadn't showered in four days, I hadn't slept in two days and there was yet another obnoxious general to deal with. Cutting down another three droids, the sound of a missile launch drew my attention back towards Anakin and my heart sank. Caught unaware by fighting off more than his share of droids, the rocket detonated close enough to him that it knocked him off of his feet and caused him to propel into the durasteel wall. I felt a crackle of anger and intense worry well up within me at the sight of his head cracking against the wall and I was too unnerved and unsettled by my condition to even care at this point._

_With a heavy exertion in the Force, I pushed the dozen or so droids back into the wall and when I saw that the entire room was empty, I staggered slightly. I allowed my panic and my anger of seeing Anakin have to take a hit like that get the best of me and even as I rushed to him, held my hand over his forehead to see if he was still alive and breathed a sigh of relief when I discovered he was alive… I couldn't bring myself to care. Quickly reaching my com link on my belt, I brought it up to my lips even as I used the Force to try and at least stabilize Anakin. When last I checked, the clones were two levels under us in our assault on this fortress – and I needed the medics, I needed them now. "Commander Cody, what's your status?"_

" _We're right behind you general," He reported back, the sound of yelling and blaster fire in the background. "We have to down one more of the generators."_

_I growled in frustration, I knew that I was unsettled and unbalanced, I regretted the choice to not try and get some sleep before the assault, because now I was letting my emotions, and worst of all, my attachment effect my judgment. When I felt something tickling on the back of the hand that was cradling Anakin's head, I pulled it back and looked at the red substance that could only be blood. My anger surged again and I still didn't care, pulling the com link back up, I put the firm steel of the Force in my voice, "Fire a cannon at it, lower the Force Field and get up here as fast as you can, General Skywalker is very injured and he needs medics, now!"_

" _Yes general," He said and signed off of the com link and I returned it to my belt._

_My attention was drawn back to Anakin as he groaned in pain, his face covered in a black substance, probably ash or something, and what made my heat race was when he rolled closer to my chest. I felt my worry slightly alleviated and amusement run through me as even when he was very injured, he took the time to make a joke, even if his voice was small and pained, "You need to bathe master…"_

" _You don't exactly smell that lovely either Anakin," I grinned and nervously kept my eye on the open entrance way and Anakin as the seconds ticked on. But when the hairs on the back of neck began to stand up and danger flared through the Force, I turned back to the other side of the room and scowled at the sight of the entrance._

_General Rakel, a human male, in his late forties with graying brown hair and a demeanor that gave his history as a military man away, had given up everything to go and fight for the cause he believed in. His wife and children on Coruscant had public disavowed their husband and father and had given us all we needed to know about the man. Since the public condemnation from his family, the General had waged a series of surreptitious assaults on a number of worlds in the Core. Most of his efforts were centered on Corellia, and his numerous and undercover exploits included destroying the power and water regulators for two thirds of Coronet City, it left millions of beings without power and water for days. Several incidents later, Republic Intelligence had tracked him to the planet of Tuerto that was deep inside the Brema Sector, the same sector of the Sullust System, because of that, half of the sector was under firm Separatist control. It had been a risk coming here, but this man had to be stopped and I was in no condition to really "negotiate" now._

_With Anakin heavily injured in her arms, my emotional blocks were completely down, I was tired, irritable and now with my target in sight, I would ask him to surrender once, just once – and I was physically holding back the other thought that crossed my mind in the event that he threatened Anakin. There was a good possibility that with all of my inherit balance gone, if the General threatened the already weakened Anakin, I would grind his bones into dust, I was that unsettled. The man smirked condescendingly at me as a blue Force Field divided the room into halves, myself and the unconscious Anakin on one half, Rakel and his bodyguards on the other. Against my conscious saying otherwise, he was very fortune to be on the other side of the field right now, it was stunning how unbalanced I had become._

" _General Kenobi, the rumors say that your beauty is exquisite, but I must admit that I'm underwhelmed now that I've met you in person," He sneered at me and I felt that same crackle of anger. "Count Dooku will be pleased if you surrender."_

_I snorted in disgust and raised an eyebrow, "I recommend that you surrender."_

" _Now why would I do that? Your troops are contained, your pet is injured and you are completely at my mercy," He smiled and all of my emotions were flaring with unbridled anger, it was wrong, it was so very wrong and I was walking a dangerous path. I had long understood why attachments were forbidden, it wasn't so much the emotion of love that was wrong, it was what happened in events like this. But no matter how much I tried to rid myself of my attachment to Anakin, I couldn't do it at all. I would have to reflect heavily on these events and center myself after this was over, "Of course, if you're unwilling to do so, I could give you some incentive: if you do not surrender, I will kill you and the boy, Dooku will be equally pleased."_

" _And if you attempt to do so, I will kill you," I narrowed my eyes._

_He smirked and made a motion to one of his bodyguards to approach the field control and then he reached for the blaster at the holster on his hip, "Jedi aren't exactly known for their aggressiveness, and you, negotiator are especially not."_

_I clinched my fist and didn't care if I could feel small sparks of electricity crackling at my knuckles and after I gently laid Anakin back down against the wall, I stood up as the field lowered, and I prepared to defend myself and Anakin. As the bodyguards armed their electrostaffs and began their approach towards us, I felt an oily, dark cloud settle over me in the Force. I felt invigorated by the anger, by all off the emotions, and for a moment, I could almost hear their pulses in the Force, just waiting there for me to snap them, "Don't any of you take another step!"_

" _Or what? Y-…" General Rakel's mocking retort was cut off by the iron grip around his neck that I had placed there with the Force. Knowing that I was taking a step too far, and not caring at all I extended the grip to all three men, and snapped their necks in unison. And when they fell to the ground, dead – I took a step back and breathed as the feeling of nausea fell over me and my senses returned to me._

_I had killed them, and killed them brutally because they threatened him._

_And the worst part of it was… I'd do it again._

* * *

**Present Day…**

I had many encounters with the Dark Side of the Force before and after Qui-Gon's death, from Xanatos to Darth Maul – but in all of that time to now, that moment was the only time that I had ever drawn upon the Dark Side. It had been shortly after Anakin had been knighted – and thankfully, I was granted the option of distancing myself from him. After Anakin had recuperated from his concussion, I returned to the Temple for a month and tried to rid myself of the taint of the unnatural power that I had used in my moment of unrestrained anger. That month of self-reflection had been the most cathartic experience of my life and it put things back into perspective for me, and I was able to reassert control over restraining that attachment and simply…simply not thinking about it, it was the only reason that another event like that never occurred again when I worked with Anakin again.

I wasn't a virginal woman infatuated with my padawan, I had known was it was to be with someone in that way and to feel attached to someone so much that it could almost be considered love. But I had never _loved_  anyone but Anakin, and it made my heart ache to think of what he had done and what he had gone through. When Master Yoda and I had infiltrated the Temple and when I saw the holo of him and that bastard, that mad man, it was another moment when I had a brush with the Dark Side of the Force. I wanted to strangle Palpatine with my bare hands in that moment and I wanted Anakin to know that he was not beyond forgiveness. I had also wanted to somehow shoulder the burden that he had carried, somehow switch places with him so he wouldn't be tormented with the memories of what he had done. But I had accepted the fact that more than likely, I would have to kill him.

When I confronted him on Mustafar, touched his sickeningly dark presence in the Force and watched him nearly choke his wife to death, I knew that he had fallen so far and had drowned in his bloodlust that there was no way to save him then. When Padme gave birth to her children and when I had put the pieces of the puzzle that I had together, I hypothesized that there were several reasons that he could have turned to the Dark Side of the Force. Anakin had never been one to lust for power or one that the violent means justified the peaceful ends, before those days. It left me with the conclusion that he must have done it out of fear and helplessness. I didn't know the exact catalyst, but I was certain that there were two main factors.

Palpatine had whispered in Anakin's ear since he had met him, taking on the role of the father that Anakin had never had, and as much as I disapproved of it – there was no legitimate reason to put an end to it at the time. If I had known then what I know now, I would have protected him from that man and tried to be more of the open and caring person that he had wanted. And Palpatine, being the Dark Lord of the Sith must have done something to exploit Anakin's fears, his weakness, he must have exploited Anakin's connection to Padme. There could be no other reasons for it, Anakin never lusted for power or conquest – and it would be the biggest regret of my life that I didn't stop that while I had the chance. Even if I had been terribly unhappy, Anakin wouldn't be Darth Vader, Padme would still be alive, their children would be in the care of their parents and the galaxy would be safe.

A legitimate argument could be made that due to my shortsightedness, my inexperience and my own fears, I let the galaxy fall to one of the most ruthless, evil beings to ever exist and I let him take one of the bravest and noble beings along with him. As the blue sphere of Alderaan neared in the viewport of the cockpit, I looked down in my lap at my long hidden lightsaber and Anakin's lightsaber next to it. I had a distinct feeling that I would be using both of them very soon, and just as I was about to pick them up, and try to get requited with using them, I heard soft, small footsteps behind me and I knew Luke was awake, "Mama, are we there yet?"

I placed my shirt over the weapons and turned in the chair and smiled at the sight of him. His blonde hair disheveled from hours of sleep, his glossy-sleepy blue eyes, his tired expression, I knew that he had a rough sleep. Luke had inherit connections to the Force, he was the child of Anakin Skywalker after all, if he used it, he used it unknowingly, and most of the time the Force really played a role in his dreams. He was much like his father in the sense that he was granted visions in his sleep, if they were true or not, if they were from the future or the past, he still dreamed of them and it had forced me to make a decision last year. The  _"Dark man"_ , I had learned was his father in his current form, that of Darth Vader, the  _"Scary man"_  was the Emperor – the _"Bright lady"_ was his mother. When I explained these things too him, I did have to leave the more graphic details out, but I made sure he knew the point. He knew that I wasn't his mother – he knew who is father was, and he knew who the Scary man and the Bright lady were. We never talked about it again, but the Force was telling me that he was deeply troubled at this moment in time.

"We're almost there," I smiled warmly at him and pointed back to the approaching planet, and then I pointed to the co-pilot's chair and patted it, Luke shuffled to the chair and took a seat in it without and hesitation whatsoever before looking up at me. "Something's troubling you sweetheart, would you like to tell me about it?"

His eyes widened, "I-I… I felt Daddy… I could see him in my dream, a-and…"

I did not like where this was going, but I was careful to control my fear at this point, the boy was very perceptive to people's emotions at the age of only five years old. He would be a powerful Jedi one day, long from now, "… and what Luke?"

"And he spoke to me, in my dream," He seemed shaken by the event, not fearful, but very unsettled, no matter how much I sugar coated the truth, he seemed to understand that his father was not someone to be crossed, "I didn't tell him anything, and when he tried to find out where we were, I woke up and came here."

This new development was troubling, and I was able to surmise two things, Vader was searching for me, which was bad enough in itself and he was now aware of Luke. He was perceptive enough to leap to the next logical and correct assumption if the thought about it long enough, and if I knew Vader like I did, then he would be coming for Luke. But what Vader didn't know was that he had another child, he had Leia and with the condition that she was in, as horrible as it was, might be the only thing to hold him off and to make him think as oppose to just blindly acting. I reached forward, and took his hand in mine, now was the time to at least let him know that this could be quite dangerous from this moment on, "Do you happen to remember what I told you about what I was before you were born sweetheart?"

Luke grinned suddenly and nodded, "You and Daddy were Jedi!"

"Yes," I nodded and smiled before reaching into my lap and pulling the lightsabers from under my shirt. I could use two lightsabers, it wasn't my preferred combat method back when I used then daily, but I was trained in the style, "The future is always in motion Luke, remember that… but I can't help but think that your Daddy and I are heading for a confrontation, and it might get a little heated. I wanted you to stay strong Luke, your Father wouldn't do anything to harm you, but he and I… we don't get along like we used too and we may fight for a little, but I want you to remember that we both love you. We'll end up fighting over who gets to keep you."

Luke looked down to his lap and frowned, "I don't want to go with him, I want to stay with you."

"And I'm going to do everything that I can to keep it that way," I reassured him, leaning forward to kiss him on the cheek. "But you have to remember that your father is a sad man, when your Mommy became one with the Force, your Daddy wasn't able to keep you, and so I had to take you and raise you. He's going to angry that I did that, just remember that we'll fight over whom loves you more…"

The little boy half-grinned, "You'll kick his butt if he tries to take me, right?"

It was not like a Jedi to willingly choose violence over peaceful solutions, but with Luke and Leia in the stakes and opponent as ruthless as Vader, I would have no choice but to "kick his butt" – I didn't tell Luke that there was about an equal chance of him kicking mine. But that wasn't something that he should worry about, I did believe that if Vader could see the attachment that Leia had to Bail and the one Luke and I shared and took into consideration the wellbeing of his children, he would not interfere. But I knew things would be much different from this point on.


	3. Chapter Three

I could remember that day on Polis Massa very clearly, that day and the days before it were the worst of my life and then things that I had gone through and had done were something that I would never forget. But the most perplexing thing about those days was the death of Padme in itself the injuries in themselves shouldn't have killed her. Anakin had only choked her in the Force for five seconds at least, and yes, while she was injured, the injuries should not have killed her. My medical droid and the physicians had told us that she had simply not wanted to live anymore – it was not something that could be explained medically, in my opinion. Anakin's betrayal of her must have just broken her inside, and she slipped away – and that had been the last time I had been in a medical facility like this one. As I stood on the other side of the observation window and watched Bail and Luke huddle around Leia, I hoped that this would not be a repeat of that day, I hoped that Leia's father still had a heart.

With the lightsabers that I most definitely would be using tucked safely on the waist band of my formfitting pants, I frowned sadly at Luke. He was overcome with awful feelings in the Force, a feeling of complete and total sadness. It made me wonder if he was unconsciously unaware of his connection to her, I had no siblings, that I was aware of anyway, so I couldn't relate to him – but maybe it was happening. I had long come to the conclusion that the future of the Galaxy would be decided by those two, they were extremely powerful, their powers had only begun to manifest themselves, sure, but once they learned how to control them, the Sith, hopeful not their father, would not be able to stop them. They would correct all of this injustice.

But once again, the future hinged on the inevitable meeting between themselves and Vader, and as I folded my arms over my chest and opened myself slightly to the Force, closing my eyes and inhaling deeply. The ripples and waves in the Force itself had been reduced significantly, when there was once thousands of Jedi drawing upon the Force, there were only hundreds left, and then of course there was the Emperor, Vader and their minions. There was no point in hiding myself for the moment, he knew that I had resurfaced, he was hunting me and he would be here eventually if Bail had his way. Stretching my shoulders, I continued to heavily breathe in and out, as if I was reacquainting myself with an old friend that I hadn't seen in years. It was fairly obvious to know why I hadn't drawn on my connection to the Force that heavily over the past few years, but now that I did, I felt calmer.

Darth Vader had the propensity to inspire people to be unsettled at the thought of his arrival, but not so much with me for the obvious reason. Unlike many of his 'enemies' that he had crushed under his boot over the past five years, I knew exactly who was behind that mask. No matter what clothes he wore and no matter what person he thought he was, he was Anakin Skywalker and I had watched and observed him throughout most, if not all of his life off of Tatootine. I knew how he thought, I knew how he fought, I knew that no matter how in touch with the Dark Side he was, he was still the reckless, impulsive boy that I, for all intents and purposes, raised into adulthood. Perhaps that spoke more about my ability to teach someone than anything, that I was capable of having a hand in the creation of Darth Vader. I shook my head quickly to dislodge that thought from my overworked mind, I did not create him, I taught Anakin Skywalker – did I make mistakes? Yes I did, and did they help create Vader? Possibly, but I was not responsible for his birth as Darth Vader. Palpatine, Darth Sidious, whatever mask he wore, he created him.

And then as I stood there, watching Bail and the children, I stopped breathing for a moment because as I felt a very familiar presence collide with mine in the Force. In some ways, I was still the Master between us – these attacks through the Force, especially at long distances were amateur at best. Shutting my eyes and pouring my concentration into strengthening my resolve, I bit down on my lip as I slowly clamped down on my presence in the Force again and the weight that had seemingly placed itself on my chest was gone. Taking a deep breath in, I wiped the sweat that had percolated on my forehead off on my sleeve and worst of all, when I brought my arm up to do so – I felt very sore from an attack from Vader that only last a few seconds. I was by no means elderly or "weak' as he would consider me to be – it had just been a very long time since I had opened myself completely to the Force itself. Turning away from the observation window, I stopped as it finally occurred to me – I needed to stretch my metaphorical legs before I engaged him.

Vader had felt my presence not once but two or possibly three times – his master undoubtedly knew that I was still out there and if I remembered Vader or Anakin's penchant for grudges, their underlings had been warned to stay away from me, I was to be Vader's kill. It wasn't the best thing for me be open like this and be subject to potentially stronger mental attacks, but I had no choice, if I had any chance of surviving my encounter with Vader, I needed to do it. After all, he had exercised his powers quite healthy for the past five years – I had only touched the Force in minor ways. Finally deciding that it was best with firm nod, I departed the room, determined to reacquaint myself with the Force and with my combat abilities.

* * *

It was hard to get used to holding Anakin's weapon while fighting, his hand, even his artificial hand was enormous compared to my own and at first it was awkward to try and fight with it at first. My own lightsaber didn't take that long for me to reacquaint myself with, when I crafted the weapon after I lost the last one Naboo, it was specifically designed for my hand and for my fighting style. What I did not expect was that I was going to take to fighting very easily, like the past five years of keeping these lightsabers hidden always hadn't happened. Delivering a swift kick to the chest of my sparring partner, Bail, Breha and Leia's secretly Force Sensitive Bodyguard, Ryal – he flew back and bowed out the match to me by knelling on one knee. I was very impressed by this man, apparently, from what I had learned about him, he had been a Jedi washout, he, a native to Alderaan had gone to Coruscant when he was very young, but the council deemed him unfit.

An older man, in his mid-forties at most, he had come to the Temple at the very same time that Master Yoda had been my crèche master when I was still a very young child. And as he grinned up at me and his deep green eyes flashed with something akin to amazement, I had a flash of a memory in my mind. I knew his face, I had seen him before and quite expectantly, as I remembered the details of the memory, he had been taken to my crèche by Master Yoda to observe it. I deactivated the weapons and hooked them back onto my belt before cocking my head and smiling at him, "I do remember you! I remember thinking that you were so lucky to be attended to by Master Yoda! I was so jealous of you a-and you w-…"

"I was  _what_ , General Kenobi?" He asked me rising to his feet in one fluid motion.

I blushed and let out a very suddenly nervous little laugh, "You were the boy who gave me a flower from the Lake Level of the Temple, and you were my first crush."

That had taken place a few years before I moved up into the upper division and was eligible to be taken as a Padawan by a master, and it was a good six years before I almost didn't become a Jedi at all and served in AgriCorps for a time. He had given me the flower and kissed me on the cheek, and I had forgotten it for a time, but I was completely and totally sure that he was that same boy. He had the same light brown hair, that same smile, same sharp facial features, I was completely sure that he was him. And when he seemed to break out of his thoughtful look and yet another grin spread slowly across his face, I knew my suspicions were correct, "I had almost forgotten about that! You were the girl with the really long hair right? You kept it up in that knot and strutted around like y-…"

"Yes, yes, that was me," I told me, rolling my eyes and walking over to a bench on the side of the room to pick up a container of water. And after I got a healthy sip of it, I looked over to him and raised an eyebrow. "How isn't that you weren't placed in AgriCorps or something like that? If you demonstrated a connection to the Force there were ways that you could be of service, not that _this_  isn't a good profession."

A wry smile curved his lips, "My parents were quite incensed that the Council had deemed me too old to train, and when the council offered that option to me, my parents actually _came_  to Coruscant and… I will never forget this. I stood there and watched them give Master Yoda the thrashing of a life time, and I was only six years old at the time and I'm naturally amazed that he's not fearful of them."

I spied him with an incredulous look and in that moment, it made me want to meet the beings who had the fortitude, other than perhaps Emperor Palpatine himself, to look the Grand Master of the Jedi Order in the eye and berate him. Even in my years as a rebellious and petulant youth, I didn't have the fortitude to do that, and there were not many people left alive who could. But Ryal's parents were evidently one of the few and I wasn't quite sure if I gained respect for the man's parents or reviled them for disrespecting, arguably, one of the most powerful Jedi in all of history. Finally deciding to break that thought off, I laughed quietly, shook my head and we both took a seat on the bench to have a cool down before our next sparring match. What he said to me next however cast an awkward silence between us and I didn't know how much I should have revealed how much Bail would want me to reveal of the situation, "How did you manage to survive the purges for so long?"

"What has the Senator told you?" I asked him, inhaling a good breath of the clean, crisp Alderaan air – this planet was exceptionally beautiful and very, very peaceful.

"He told me that you managed to disarm Darth Vader and escape after your duel, he didn't confirm anything, but he once told me that you were the one that put him in that suit," He raised an eyebrow at me and with his albeit rudimentary sense of the Force, he was practically broadcasting his feelings and emotions and when I sensed no deception from him, I decided to at least give him a half truth of all of it.

I had encountered many undercover Imperial Intelligence Agents who thought that their deception was working and I thanked the Force that whoever was training them wasn't training Force Sensitive intelligence agents. Placing my hands in my lap, I looked over to him and smiled slightly, "I almost didn't walk away from the purges initially; I had been on assignment on Utapau when the extermination order came through. Luckily the Clone who fired on me had a bit of a sloppy aim and I survived it, narrowly of course, but I still did survive it to see what happened next. I didn't know who Darth Vader was at that time and I almost wish I didn't find out."

Ryal blinked as it dawned on him, "You know who he is under-… all of that."

I nodded, looking absently at the ground, "Yes, and I specifically get to carry the burden of knowing that the monster known as Darth Vader was once my Padawan."

"Y-You trained him?" He choked – I noticed his face had turned white.

And for good reason as well, it had been no secret that I was Anakin Skywalker's Jedi Master and had trained the "Hero With No Fear" – and he was the only Padawan that I had ever trained. There had been so many slanderous and patently false stories written about Anakin and myself over the years and so many news reports in the Republic that it was hard to miss that connection. When I nodded, he turned and stared at the ground, repeating my same action, it must have shocked the hell out of him to find out something like this. Men wanted to be him for the simple fact that women practically threw themselves at him, and the little children wanted to be him because of the hero aspect of things, he was a high profile Jedi.

But people were led to believe that Anakin Skywalker had been killed in the purges along with his fellow Jedi, and that might have been the only thing that I would ever agree with the Emperor on. And in a sense the propaganda was correct, Anakin had died, but for people to know the truth, that Anakin and Vader were the same person, I expected Ryal's reaction to be the same reaction. After all, Anakin had seemed to escape the derision that the Empire had clothed the other Jedi in at the proclamation of the Empire. For anyone who knew the situation, it was painfully obvious and yet again, I had shoulder the burden of Vader being my apprentice.

"He's really Anakin Skywalker?" The man asked me with unadulterated shock.

"Yes," I nodded, picking up the water container again. "And I've only survived the purges because I know how he thinks, I know his weaknesses and his flaws and I've used them to survive. Vader is a tough opponent and uses his pure, brute strength, but he's arrogant, overconfident and even as a Sith, he's very cocky."

More silence passed between us and just as I thought that the awkwardness had gotten the best of us, he's slight laughter drew my attention back him. Raising an eyebrow, he looked up to me and I discovered that it was a laugh that was brought on by pure and utter shock. Using the Force to feel his thoughts, my eyes widened, pure astonishment and understanding welled in his Force Aura. And I had a feeling that I knew what it was – it was so much that Anakin was Darth Vader, but it had to do with the children, "The Princess was adopted by their majesties, you were not pregnant, and whenever I've been close to Luke and Leia together, there is something about them. My intuition is telling me that they're connected in more ways than one – in fact, I'm fairly sure I know what it is, do you care to confirm?"

There was danger in letting this information out to too many people, while I didn't know Ryal well enough to trust him implicitly like Bail, I was almost completely sure that he wouldn't say a word. But the Dark Side of the Force was a slippery, convoluted and ruthless thing that would violate basic ethics to get its users exactly what they wanted. There were rituals in the Force that were practiced by the Sith to completely and totally strip the poor soul that they were interrogating of their memories. If Vader or Palpatine, or many of their acolytes captured Ryal, the truth would be there, lying in his mind for one of them to take it from him. So I simply proceeded with caution, opting not to confirm anything, but at the same time making it clear that he was correct. And then his eyes widened again and he blew out a sight. "Maybe kids would be good for him, if they can get over that mask."

"I've never seen Vader interact with children, but Sith, Sith are notoriously known for not differentiating between innocents and combatants," I told him absently, my mind flashing back to memories of finding bodies of small, six year old children who had been impaled on Anakin's lightsaber. I tried to remind myself that at the time, he was so deep in his bloodlust that he couldn't possibly care, but it gave me a bad inclination for the coming days. Those younglings were not capable of even moving a cup with the Force, much less trying to subvert a government and the Sith.

I still shed tears for those children when I thought about them.

And I hoped, I desperately hoped that Vader had moved beyond the wanton murder of children to satisfy his emersion to the Dark Side of the Force. I hoped that at the very least he had gained a conscious as to what was at the most basic level right and wrong. It was not historically accurate to the think that of Sith, but these two children happened to be his and I hoped that it would make all of the difference in the world. Looking back to him, I set the water container back down on the bench and raised an eyebrow, "You want to have another match?"

He smiled and nodded.

* * *

Kissing Luke on the cheek, I sat on the edge of the bed and watched as he made himself very comfortable and grinned brightly up at me. I had worked hard to change his mood after he had gone to Leia's bedside and even though I could still sense an underlying feeling of worry in him, he was significantly happier. That was probably a good thing too because when I left this room, I was going to go with Bail to send a private communication to Vader. When he would arrive I didn't know, but when he did arrive, I knew that it would be almost impossible for Luke to find happiness. Vader would undoubtedly be very angry and that would scare the daylights out of Luke and if he went ahead with the blood transfusion, Leia would be in the same position. I could not stop it no matter how much I wish that I could stop that, I couldn't – I could only shield the children from suffering too much and fight Vader into submission, it would take a lot to do that, or to death and that frankly was a hit or a miss. Vader had a clear advantage over me, but I knew where his weaknesses lay and no matter how much time would pass, it would not change at all. It took me a moment to realize that I was so caught up in my morose thoughts that I didn't realize that Luke was now frowning, concern permeating him.

"What is it?" I asked him, trying to shake my thoughts away from his father.

"You're upset," Luke answered, narrowing his eyes. "Why?"

"I'm not upset sweetheart," I smiled and leaned down to kiss him on the cheek again. "I'm just worried, I'm worried about Leia, I'm worried about you, and I'm worried about the next couple of days. Senator Organa and I are going to go contact your Father, because he's the only person that we know of who can provide the blood that Leia needs. I'm just worried about that entire thing too, don't worry."

Eventually, both Bail and I knew, we'd have to tell Luke and Leia about their connection as brother and sister, but now was not the time. The children were very perspective to the Force, I was not denying that, but they were still five year olds and I thanked the Force itself that he didn't have the knowledge or the understanding to catch onto the next logical conclusion. Now was not the time to depress him even more at the prospect of his sister's death. If he resented me later on for not telling him, then I would deal with that then, but it was not now, not at this crucial junction where their future would be at risk by their father. In the Force, I could see that Luke was not totally convinced but there was nothing I could do about it. He would just have to trust that things would work out when it was over.

"Don't worry Luke," I told him, smiling despite myself. "Everything will be alright, if something happens in the next few days between your Father and I, just know that it's not you that causing it. Remember what I said about that possible outcome?"

Luke nodded thanks to my very subtle manipulation in the Force, his eyes began to grow heavier and heavier, when he answered, it was a small and tired voice, "You said that you and Daddy would fight over who loved me the most, I 'member."

"Good," I winked at him and for the third time kissed him. "Sweet dreams."

* * *

Master Qui-Gon never believed that there was such a thing as destiny, an ardent believer in the theory of the Living Force, he lived and acted in the moment. When he trained me, he tried to instill this belief in me and frankly, there were moments when I lost and regained my faith in it. I did not believe that whatever was affecting Leia was destiny – I did not think that it was destiny that Vader had to be called to Alderaan, putting she and her brother at risk. Whatever the cause of it was an effect over her body, and it set off this chain of events. But that wasn't to say that I completely rejected the idea of the Living Force or embraced the ideals of the Unifying Force either. I was in firm disagreement with the philosophy that there were no sides to the Force and that there was no such thing as Dark Side or Light.

The proof was the fact that ever since I started drawing deeper on the Force this morning, the Force felt like it was almost crying out in pain. The Sith were probably drawing on it like it was their servant, their typical method and the various wars and skirmishes still taking place on individual planets taxed the Force very much. I believed in aspects of both of the philosophy, I knew that one was wrong and because I didn't believe that it was destiny to be doing this right now, I believed in the Living Force theory more. The Force couldn't have anticipated this moment.

"You had better have a good reason for stealing my personal communication frequency Organa," I watched as Vader…Anakin, threatened Bail from the holo projector. Even through the Holo, I could see his armor clothed arms crossing over his chest in irritation, and I didn't need to see his face to know that he was very angry. "And you should know that I will subject those who have given you this frequency to abject misery and torture – but it was obviously important enough."

I felt a stab of resentment, sadness and anger as Vader laid down his threat to Bail's contacts within Imperial Intelligence. He had made it clear how much those people had sacrificed to get him that information and it only made since that he was feeling this way after being talked that way too. Maybe Bail could warn them before Vader could get their hands on them and maybe, just maybe they'd have enough time to hide themselves from him. Shaking my thoughts away, I folded my arms over my chest and made sure that I was clearly out of the projection field. I had the distinct impression that Vader would not be shocked if he knew that I was on Alderaan but regardless, I would not reveal myself until the less it was needed.

"My lord," He bowed to him and I could sense that he was almost physically willing himself to do so. "An urgent matter has cropped here on the planet and I'm afraid that it needs your personal attention. You will of course not regret this journey."

I could almost hear the sarcasm in his deep, baritone voice, "Should assume that you would have me step foot onto your planet without my forces around me?"

"You will not need them," Bail shook his head and I nodded, very pleased.

No matter if he was Darth Vader or Anakin Skywalker, there would always be some constants about him and his overwhelming curiosity was one of them. It did not matter if he had murderous intentions or innocent, he had always let it get the better of him and I knew with just a little bit more prodding, he'd take the bait.

"You know my policy towards liars Organa," Vader growled warningly and I knew that because of my readings on how Vader dealt with anything he found repulsive, I knew that there was a fine line between baiting Vader and angering him. He could quite easily choke Bail through the Force over this distance even, it would be easy.

When he made that familiar chocking maneuver with his fingers, I felt a tingle come up my spine and my danger senses flared to life. Using the Force to shove Bail out of the way, I stepped into the holo-projection field and glared at the miniature version of my former Padawan. Through that constant rasp from what I assumed was his mask, I heard the breath hitch in hesitation and I actually heard him rumble, and I absorbed a massive wave of shock, confusion and anger sweep over him at the sight of me. He was clearly under the impression that I wouldn't have been so foolish as to come to Alderaan, and normally I would not. Sending him a feeling of grim but nonetheless durasteel strong determination in the Force, I braced myself for the oily dark feeling and words that he would no doubt throw at me. I had to remind myself that I was only here to protect Bail and the children.

The miniature of Vader stood up and I could hear the mocking false gentle tone in his voice as he directed his voice at Bail, he was no longer viewable on the holo-projector on Vader's end, "I'm afraid that I can no longer come to Alderaan without the backing of my troops if you're harboring undesirables such this scum, Organa."

I smiled wryly at him, "I'm the only Jedi on this planet as far as I know, and no, I haven't been all these years, the Senator asked me here and I came-…"

"That is irrelevant Kenobi," Vader made a cutting gesture with his hand. "Organa is a traitor – you've just implied that the Viceroy has been in contact with you since the declaration of the new order. That makes him a traitor and a subversive."

Stepping closer to the eye of the projector, I glared at him, knowing that he would take my bait, I had to be aggressive and unyielding and present him with another option, "Oh come now Vader, if you're this distracted by the mere appearance of me… then your master must be holding your leash tighter than thought. If insist on subjugating this entire planet because of me, then that speaks your abilities really."

"Watch your tongue!" Vader raged at me and repeated the same gesture that he had with Bail only moments before, but in this instance I was able to defend myself from his attack. As I felt him reaching out through Force towards my throat, I fought back, exerting a wave of Force energy to block it away harmlessly from me.

"I am here to make sure that you don't outright kill the Viceroy without listening to him – believe me when I tell you this, he has something to tell you that you will want to hear. Once you depart without having killed anyone, I will go back into hiding and I won't bother you again," We both knew that the very last thought was completely true, that much I could ascertain, but he no longer broadcasted his thoughts to me like he did years ago. "This matter doesn't have to do with the never ending battle between the Light and the Dark Sides of the Force. This is something personal, something that has nothing to do with the Empire, only you."

At first I had been so angry that I couldn't see straight and exasperated because there was some poor fool on Coruscant whose life officially came to an end the moment Organa appeared on my personal communication station. This was still a time of growth for the Empire and while I was putting out fires in the Outer and Mid Rims, my master was dealing with stabilizing Core Worlds. But apparently his methods were not working and I blamed it on his methods. He took the political approach, preferring to use methods of professional destruction at first and if not, he simply had them executed in secret. I preferred to make an example in front of their peers and I was quite good at it too, strangling someone to death in the presence of their co-workers seemed to get the point across: _do not fail me at all._

Perhaps the Director of Imperial Intelligence and I would need to talk very soon, but for now, for now I was faced with the question to go to Alderaan or not. Kenobi was there, she wouldn't have revealed herself to me unless she was sure that she could change my intention to kill her on sight. And in the Force, I was sure that they were not lying to me, but that also brought up the question as to what they were talking about? Kenobi was there, Organa ruled the planet. Normal procedure said that if I even smelled a Jedi, the planet was to be put under my direct control and to be completely cut off from the rest of the galaxy until we found the Jedi. Of course I had the authority to forgo all of that and hunt the Jedi down myself, but would it be wise in this case? I was not worried about Organa or his bodyguard, or even ten his bodyguards. What I did worry about was an entire army of his bodyguards, soldiers, Kenobi, other Jedi and not having the back up to fight them.

I could hold my own against Kenobi and I could defeat her with effort. I could easily destroy any other Jedi that she had there, because frankly, I didn't believe her when she said she was the only. But I couldn't destroy an entire army  _myself_. I could do many things with the power of the Dark Side of the Force, but to render myself invulnerable to several hundred blaster shots and several missiles was not something that I could escape alive. Growling, I shook the thoughts from my head, I was Sith, with the Dark Side of the Force as my weapon, I could defeat anything!

If they wanted me alone, I would go alone and I would crush their skulls if they were trying to lull me into a trap. Locking eyes with my former master, I felt a tiny pang of… of longing and slowly smashed it down with the full weight of my anger.

"Personal you say?" I glared at her, my breathing becoming heavier and thus causing my breathing unit to run faster. "Fine – I will set course for Alderaan."

"It would be preferable if you did put your entire fleet in orbit, you will cause mass panic," Obi-Wan replied calmly and that irked me further. "Neither of us want your master to be aware of this meeting – I would hope that you won't when you know the truth. I'm not telling you the reason because I don't trust saying it over this network, come to Alderaan as soon as you can, come alone to the Winter Palace."

I hesitated and with effort, unclenched my fists and nodded, "Very well."

* * *

As I blindly tightened my hold on the waist of the body lying next to me, my eyes snapped open at the soft sigh of contentment. The face of t-the… woman lying next to me was obscured in a thick mess of tangled brown hair, and when I tried to reach out in the Force to try and figure out who she was without waking her, I actually gasped in shock. I felt nothing, absolutely nothing – for the very first time in my life, I couldn't feel the Force, wherever I was anyway. Pulling my hand back from the woman's waist, I did a double take at the sight of my… my arm, my actual arm, the hand and the arm that I lost in my duel with Count Dooku when I was a teenager. Curiosity, intrigue, and fear flooded through me as I pulled my other arm out of the thick layer of duvets and I choked down a gasp at the sight of it. I just needed one more affirmation that whatever was taking place at this moment was not real, and not seeming to care about whoever was sleeping with me, I frantically ripped at the blankets and fell back in shock at the sight of my legs. Laying there, looking up at the vaulted ceiling of whatever this room was, I tried to make sense of whatever this was. If this was some sort of dream or vision, it was wildly vivid.

It was wildly vivid, because as I looked down at my almost completely exposed body, along with all of my original extremities, there was not a burn, wound or scar in sight. With that thought, I began to pat my head and after I ran my hand through my hair, I was actually starting to become more frightened then anything. I had not feared something like this since I was a small boy, even the all-consuming fear of having visions of my wife's death in childbirth didn't scare me as much as this. Count Dooku had taken one of my hands and Obi-Wan Kenobi had taken the other, my legs and had left me to burn on the bank of a river of lava. I had been confined to that infernal suit, my injuries so severe that I couldn't breathe outside of a specially designed hyperbaric chamber. Doing at the sight of a mirror on the other side of the room, I could see clearly that it was as if all of those events hadn't transpired. Throwing my legs over the side of the bed, I hesitated slightly as I stood up on my real legs for the first time in years. Throwing caution to the wind, I took a tentative step forward, and then another one and began my walk to the mirror. Along the way, I wiggled my toes into the soft carpet, relishing the feeling.

When I arrived at the mirror, I choked on yet another gasp as I ran my fingers over my face. It was as if the past eight years of my life had never happened, the only thing anchored in reality at this point was the scar over my eye socket. If the woman on the bed had not stirred into consciousness, I might have just stood there, looking at the face of a man that did not exist anymore and the face of a man that I secretly would give anything to be again. That wasn't to say that I didn't regret the past five years, but it would have been so much more bearable to be able to breathe on my own and see with my own eyes. Turning back, I peered at the woman with curiosity, not outright hostility, something that I hadn't given many beings for a long time. But I felt a torrid of emotions inundate of mind as I finally realized who the woman was and this torrent of emotions quickly dissolved in anger, curiosity and a small twinge of awe – it was Obi-Wan, the accursed, beautiful witch that turned my life upside down and made it a completely blistering hell. I clenched my fists in anger as she leaned up in the bed, tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear and looked up to me warily, "What are  _you_  doing here?"

"I was about to ask you the same question," I growled angrily at her, rooted to the spot, wanting to know exactly what she intended by this painful and obvious farce.

I watched as she sat up in the bed, pulled her legs to her chest and turned to look out at the wide sweeping balcony that was bathed in moonlight. Sparing a second to share in the sight, I would not give her the satisfaction of knowing that I was very much enjoying the feel of a light breeze blowing across my face. But when I tossed the foolish sentiment aside, I gritted my teeth and watched as her typically wide blue eyes widened and her long brown locks fluttered with a stronger gust of the breeze. Then she turned back to me and a cryptic smile came to her face, "I have done nothing, right now, I'm quite sure that I'm enjoying a peaceful sleep."

Still not moving, I snorted angrily, "I'm sure, but you didn't answer my question."

"This is the first time that I've opened myself completely to the Force in a very long time Anaki-…" Before I had to hear another one of her riddles, I interrupted her. I had not been Anakin Skywalker in a very long time, that was not my name and for Kenobi to use it-… it brought back a torrent of unwanted memories and feelings.

"That is not my name! He is dead! You killed him!" I pointed glared angrily at her.

What happened next was something that I had never gotten to see from Obi-Wan before, granted, during the first decade of my training of a Jedi, she had gotten annoyed with me on more than one occasion. But, and I could barely admit this to myself, the expression on her face was anger that I had never seen from her before. I would never tell her that it sent a shiver down my spine to see pure blue fire in her eyes and when she tore the covers off of her, summoned her robe and stood up. Ignoring the spark of an all familiar emotion at the sight of all of her bare skin, I watched as she tied the pale robe around her body and marched around the bed directly to me and jabbed and finger in my chest. Obi-Wan Kenobi had never been one to let her emotions run so unrestrained and no matter how much I wanted to strangle her, there was a part of me who wanted to see it that would never die. It was that poor beleaguered boy who suffered under her awful care.

"I did not kill him! You did! It's not so much the matter of all of the atrocities that you've committed in the name of your precious Empire, and it wasn't Mustafar that killed Anakin Skywalker, it was the fact that you started _believing_  it all. No matter how much you try, Anakin Skywalker will never die, I can assure you," She was in my face now and a little voice in the back of my mind pondered briefly that age had been very good to her. "But don't you ever say that to me again! You know nothing of how much I cared for you or how much it took to even get myself to fight you!"

"You lie!" I snapped back at her, moving to get into her face this time.

She looked back up to me with that defiant look again, and it had been a long time since I had this experience and had someone stand up to me like this, "I have done many things to you in my life Anakin, and many things that I can never undo-…"

I blinked as her voice broke slightly and a tear streamed down her face – that was something that I had never, ever seen from her before. The closest time that I had ever come to seeing her actually cry was in the first two or three years of our time together, when she was still mourning for Qui-Gon and she would go off to her quarters to brood whenever I mentioned her. She grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me closer to her, presumably so that she could make sure that I was looking at her directly in the eye when she told me this, "…but I have  _never_  lied to you!"

"Then why am I here?" My former self coming out in more ways than I'd like to admit, it was painfully clear that I had no power in whatever I was. It would be a much more different situation if I had control, but this place felt like a manifestation of the Force's power under Obi-Wan's sole control. As long as it was just the two of us, I could at least be less threating with her, my master was not here and neither were the Jedi. And I wanted answers, a lot of answers – now was the best time for them, when I arrived on Alderaan, things would be too fast paced for good answers.

She seemed taken aback by my quiet tone and without a word she turned away, wrapping her arms around her chest and slowly began to walk to the open balcony, and for a moment, I watched as she stood silhouetted in the light. I allowed myself one thought that I was otherwise deem distracting, it was the simple fact that she and Padme had been the most important things in my life and both of them had been in trouble, I didn't know who I attempt to save first. Deciding that she was wordlessly expecting me to join her, I blew out a sight of irritation and decided to follow her. And when I arrived to flank her, she turned to me and a look of intense sadness and concentration came over her face, "I don't exactly know why you are here, but I am thinking that it is because of our bond, and before you say something to the contrary, it's there. I have not lowered my defenses like this in years and it wouldn't be surprising if my mind reached out to yours while I was asleep Anakin."

I looked down to my body and noting its completeness again and then looked back up to her with a raised eyebrow, I needed an explanation my appearance in this place, "And why do I look like this exactly? Why not allow me to enter your dreams in my actual form? And better yet, why am I sleeping with you in a bed like this?"

She trailed her eyes down my body, and it was something in her eyes that made the most absurd thought pop into mind for only a moment. It was the way her eyes seemed to have lingered and hugged the sight for one moment for too long and when she brought her eyes back up to mine, she turned and looked away. Then I knew she was about to lie, the way she pursed her lips and refused to make eye contact, she had never been a good liar, "I don't know why, but that is not the important part."

I decided not to push it for the moment, because I knew that she was correct and instead. I put my hands on my hips purely out of habit over the past five years, and I was not bothered at all by my immodest lack of clothing and the cold breeze. In that moment, I tried for my next pressing thought, "Why have you come back?! If you would have just stayed away, stayed hidden I wouldn't have ever found you."

A wry smile came across her lips and she turned and grinned, "You'd better be careful  _Lord Vader_ , if I didn't know you any better, I would think that you care."

"I don't," I defended hotly, no matter how my thoughts were telling me otherwise, wanting to desperately tell her to leave and never appear again. "You are a Jedi, and I've spent the past few years wiping them out and it's never nice to see one again, but you, you are a particularly troublesome Jedi for me, one I never wanted to see."

She turned to me and smiled again, "Whatever you say."

"You don't believe me?! How shocking," I spat back at her with heavy sarcasm.

"I really don't believe you, but that's not the point either," She said, finally turning back and walking around me to head back into the strange room. "I did not reveal myself out of some dangerous need to entice you to come and chase me; I came out of hiding for a good reason. Senator Organa and I didn't plan on telling you this until you physically landed on Alderaan, but I suppose this environment is a better place."

I knew she was about to drop a missile on me, Obi-Wan always had a way of doing that, a typical method in which she did it: she tried to soften the blow by talking up her justification and her reasoning and then let me have it. She had done it since the day Qui-Gon Jinn had died, through ten years of an admittedly strained relationship, a war and even now when we were on opposite sides of the board. Turning back to me, she frowned, "You must understand something, Senator Organa, Master Yoda and I didn't do this to spite you, or to seek some sort of petty revenge on you after all that you had done. You need to keep in mind that we did what we did because you or more specifically, your master wouldn't have offered them a great life."

I narrowed my eyes and approached her slowly, a sinking, sad and very, very angry feeling welling up inside of me; I knew who she was referring to before she even said it. "Don't you dare presume to tell me that Kenobi! Padme is dead! Our child is dead! Anakin Skywalker is dead! Do not feed me even more of your offending lies!"

"Padme is dead," She nodded and I felt something stab at me, five years later and it still hurt as much as the day that I heard the news. But for the uncountable time since I had awoken into this dream, vision or connection that she had trapped me in, I just stared wordlessly at her, completely dumbstruck. "But, she died shortly  _after_  she gave birth and named your children, they're alive Anakin, and up until two days ago they were perfectly happy and healthy. That's why I came out of hiding, Bail knew that he could only turn to you to help and he asked me to come back to Alderaan so that he had at least some chance of surviving an encounter with you."

By the time she finished, I had walked back to the bed and stared numbly at the floor with my hands hanging deadly in my lap. I was far too overwhelmed to be angry and I was far too numb to be outwardly sad, there were so many revelations in her words for me to even pretend to be angry. When I felt the bed next to me sink and I felt her hand on my shoulder, it was then that I turned to her and saw her face, and I sneered at her, "W-why!? Why did you take them from me Kenobi?!"

My life had been completely empty since that day, complete with mourning of my wife and my children to make it a flaming hell. I couldn't say that they would have been happiest with living with me, in fact it was quite easy to assume that they wouldn't. A Star Destroyer was no home for children and the Imperial Palace would be even worse, I was Sith, but in regards to my own children, I shifted into the mindset of my former self. I witnessed with my own eyes the treatment that my master inflicted upon the people who lived in his palace, and even before she could offer a defense, I understood her reasoning. I didn't like it, they were my children, but if my children were safer and happier with Kenobi and Organa, then so be it.

"I did not take them from you," She defended and I was too overwhelmed to respond again. "You and I both know what would have happened if I had allowed you to take them, Palpatine would have twisted them into something that was unrecognizable. I took the boy, Bail took the girl, we've raised them to have happy childhoods, more than you could have ever given them in your state, and you cannot be so foolish as not see that yourself. Do not blame everything on me Anakin."

I shot up from the bed, turned and bared my teeth at her and I didn't even care anymore that tears were freely running down my face, "I would not have done that if she had not brought you there to kill me!"

"She didn't know what I was on that ship," She answered calmly and my heart sunk.

"W-what?!" I couldn't help but choke out.

Her eyes were sad and there was another tinge of that unidentifiable emotion that Obi-Wan had in her eye with me for the past ten years. When she spoke to me, she spoke to me with a tone that was soft and yet had durasteel behind it, "You heard me Anakin, she did not know that I had stowed away on her ship – she was my only link to finding you and I took it, I did not know you would react that way, though I should have. You had been on a murderous rampage for the past three days, but you were so deep in your bloodlust and she tried to tell you, but you couldn't listen t-…"

"No need to twist the knife Obi-Wan," I told her morosely, I still hated the ground that she walked on, but in that moment, I no longer wanted to rip her to pieces.

"She believed in you, you know," She said absently, as I shifted my gaze to hers, listening to every word, after all, she seemed to be on the last few people to see Padme alive. "Her last words were to make me promise to protect those children and to never give up hope that underneath that suit, you are still Anakin Skywalker."

"What did she name them?" I asked her suddenly, breaking from the topic.

Obi-Wan turned to me and her eyes softened, "Luke is the boy's name, and Leia is the girl, they seem to be a perfect match of their parents down to the color of their hair. I'm not sure if the Senator has made Leia aware of who her parents are, but Luke knows, Luke knows who his mother and father are and he's been scared out of his wits knowing that you're coming here. He hasn't said anything, but there is a deep seeded fear in his mind that you are going to take him from me and kill me."

'The idea had occurred to me,' I thought wryly, but in something that I hadn't expected myself to do, I shrunk back from the idea of that. No matter what issues Obi-Wan and I had between each other, I did have to admit one thing, I had to admit that I was grateful that she kept Luke away from my master. I would say the same for Organa too, but if I knew him like I did, then he would be snide and petty about it and if he did tell… my daughter… that I was her father, it wouldn't cast me in a very sympathetic light. Shaking my head absently, I finally finding the words to say, not necessarily to her, but just to myself, this experience had been completely surreal for me. I was a father, and I knew that I wasn't going to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi, threaten? Yes, kill? No, "I suppose that explains Organa's fear around me."

"Leia is dying, Anakin," She said and I turned back to her, my mouth open.

Struggling to form words, I felt more tears run down my cheeks, "W-wha…"

"But her doctors are saying that she needs a genetically similar blood transfusion, and she seems to have inherited your blood type, Luke did not," She said, looking down at the hands in her lap. "I'm not asking you to donate blood to her for my or Bail's sake, I'm asking you to do it for Leia, Luke and Padme. Padme would expect nothing less from you, even if you think you're Darth Vader, Luke deserves to know his sister and Leia, Leia deserves to experience life, she's only just gotten started."

No matter how much I didn't want to admit it, and no matter how much my emersion in the Sith teachings were telling me otherwise, Obi-Wan was right. I was no longer Anakin Skywalker, but regardless of a name or a personality, those were my children, they were Padme's children. They were one of the last pieces of a part of my life I didn't get to live anymore and unlike the pieces that I had destroyed, I was not going to let these two go. Looking back to her, I looked her square in the eye, my senses returning to me, "My ship will arrive in that system in two days, I will order it to hold position at the edge of the system and I'll take shuttle to the planet myself. Then I will give Leia all that she needs to make a full recovery…"

Obi-Wan smiled softly and nodded, "Alright."

"And I want to meet Luke," I told her, my gaze not necessarily hard.

She was silent for a moment, looking down at the floor and I didn't need the Force to tell me that she had reservations, "…okay, but if you attempt to take him or Leia back to that madman you call a master, I do  _anything and_   _everything_  to stop you."

"I will not take them," I sighed sadly, no matter how much I wanted to do it, Obi-Wan had made a point that I could not argue with, they were the only thing left of Padme. I would not let the only thing left of Padme be twisted into what I had been.

"Alright," Obi-Wan nodded.

Narrowing my eyes at her, I felt some resentment return, "I still despise you."

I silently observed as she let out a shuddered breath and nodded, the last time we had even spoken, she had tried to tell me that she loved me and would have done anything for me. But I had been so beyond blinded by my fresh emersion to the Dark Side of the Force that everything she said was a lie, "I don't understand why you do, but I know… and you may hate me for the rest of your life, but it's not mutual."

"I'm only sparing you for Luke's sake," I reminded her, not completely convinced.

"I know," Obi-Wan nodded.

"And I still have to fight you, but I will not kill you," That was going to be necessary even if I didn't want to do it, I had to make it seem like I had battled her. A thought occurred to me, "After, I will report to my master and to the Inquisitors that you have been killed and you can take Luke back into hiding without fear of the Empire."

I could have sworn I saw her hold back a tear, "Very well."

"And pondering you as of late, I've been thinking about a few things and presuming that this is the last time that you and I will ever talk like this, may I do something, just once?" I asked her – if I was going to sever my connections to Obi-Wan and in the process keep both her and Luke safe, I needed to end this last thought of her.

She raised an eyebrow, "Of course."

In all of my days, through all of my experiences, this was something that I thought I would never do. For the Force's sake, this woman had practically raised me, but then again, we grew up together in a sense as well. Standing up, I slowly stood in front of her and then just as slowly leaned down and pressed her lips against mine. After a single second of shock and Obi-Wan began to respond to the kiss, I broke away and cleared my throat. Pretending not to notice the shocked expression on her face, I looked at the wall on the back of the bed, trying to figure out some way to break the connection. However, once again, Obi-Wan caught me by surprise and interrupted my attempt to break out of whatever dream-hold she had over me, "What was that for?"

"Just satisfying a curiosity, that's all," I told her softly, turning my attention away.

"Seeing as this is going to be one of the last time that you and I ever speak like this again, I suppose that I have some confessions of my own and maybe some last words that I have to say while it's just the two of us," I opened my eyes and looked at her, and noticed that she was looking at the ground between us. The only reason I was still listening at this point was because of the reasoning that she had laid out. All of my experiences in my life before the Sith were rooted with her and I… I just wanted to know. "When I first met you, I thought you were just another being that Master Qui-Gon had taken pity on, and I felt that there was something dangerous about you, I thought training you would be a big mistake on the council's part."

I smirked and snorted, "You were very much right."

"No," She shook her head as she looked up to me with a sad smile. "I wasn't right, if I had just been more attentive, if I had just not made the mistakes that I made with you when I first began to train you, then perhaps you might not have gravitated towards your current master. Perhaps if I had been quick enough and had been able to keep Qui-Gon from being killed, you could have gone to him, but if I hadn't done then, then my prediction would have been wrong. I'm sorry for making you feel like I would have thrown you to the Kath Hounds immediately if I had found out about Padme, and most of all, I'm sorry for making you feel like you were worth nothing or that I was teaching you out of obligation, that's not the truth of the matter Anakin."

The opening of old wounds was something that I had occurred frequently over the past five years, but these wounds had not been touched in some time, not since the fires of Mustafar. When I fought her there, I poured what anger and resentment I had for her into my seemingly inexhaustible pool of hate, anger and rage. But, and even if she didn't know it, she had slowly picked away at most if not every reason that I had come up to hate her in the midst of my legendary rages about her. She had mutilated me, left me to burn, instigated the death of my wife, took my children from me and yet… for the first time in a very long time, I couldn't bring myself to hate her to the point of killing her. It might backfire when I left this environment, but this encounter with her had calmed me, something abhorrent and very had for Sith, who depended on the emotions of hate and rage to sustain their power.

But there were always of remedying that little fact.

Palpatine for example, I had very good reason to despise the very air that he breathed for the simple fact that he allowed me to believe that I had killed my wife and child, or children and didn't allow me a moment to try and find the truth. He took exceptional pleasure in exploiting it and reminding me of it when I tended to wavier with my duties, and for his amusement. He would be the perfect outlet for that need to survive and to triumph over my enemies. As far as Obi-Wan went, I could only real thing I could hate her for was the condition that she left me in after our last duel. The smaller things, the screaming and the insults that she threw at me as a child, those things were petty and small – but they were counterbalanced by the fact of how she treated my children and how she wasn't vindictive about all of it.

A lesser and more bitter woman would not tell Luke about me, and even thought I had initially thought so, she was not lying – I could see it in her eyes. My problems with Obi-Wan were not anything to drag my children into and the only reason that I was overlooking the fact that she was a Jedi, a woman who was legally and literally my enemy, was because of my children. I would never admit to myself that I knew I was lying about that, but it did not matter, Obi-Wan and Organa would not die because they protected my children from a fate that I wouldn't wish on them with anything. One day, if they wanted to join me, the situation would be different, but for now, they were too young and I-I…  _trusted_ Obi-Wan to protect them for now.

That last thought was completely true, but it was still very surreal.

"What's your point?" I asked her, becoming very overwhelmed again.

She stood up from the bed with arms folded over her chest and looked me square in the eye, "I almost fell to the Dark Side once because I let my anger over someone threatening you, I killed three people with a movement of my fingers. And to be honest, if I had not separated myself from you afterwards… I think I would have done it again. No matter how much you may hate or resent me, I want you to know that I care about you in a way that I shouldn't, even now. I've held onto that secret for nearly a decade and I don't think I couldn't stand it if I didn't tell you once."

A tight feeling welled up in my gut and I wasn't angry, or overwhelmed, I wasn't even purely shocked, it was a strange combination of curiosity, shock, utter disbelief and another emotion that I couldn't quite pick up on. I was no fool, I knew the implication of her words and suddenly everything made sense, my appearance, that look that she gave me only moments before, it was mindboggling. With one eyebrow firmly raised, I looked down at her as if she had three heads, "A-are you saying-…?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying Anakin," She nodded gravely before turning around and sighing deeply. It was strange to look at her in this new light, it wasn't something that I was afraid of or hated, but the unknown had always done this sort of thing. And this was a new level of our relationship for me, a very unknown one that I neither feared, hated or resented like the others. "For the first few years after Padme's death, I was very depressed, aside from the obvious reasons that everything that I had ever known had been completely destroyed. I knew that there was something between the two of you, but I never pressed you on it out of fear of what I would find, both for myself and you. It took me awhile to accept the fact that you had a wife, and when I did, she suddenly because the luckiest being to ever exist."

Turning back to me, she smiled again and my breath caught, thi-this revelation had changed my perception of her and it was not bad at all. I would always love Padme, she was my wife and the mother of my children, but Obi-Wan, she was something else entirely, "Forgive me – I'm just an old woman rambling about a little crush."

Finally finding the words to speak, I blinked at her, rather stupidly and shook my head stiffly, what I said to her made her grin wryly, "Y-You're hardly old Kenobi."

"Flattery will get you everywhere Lord Vader," She teased me, and looked back up to me with hooded eyes. "But I hardly think that matters anymore, I-I just wanted to you know that there was a time when I would have killed to protect you without question, and I would have done everything to see you happy. These past few years have been dreadful for me, obviously – but add in this and it becomes worse. Don't you say that I never cared for you or loved you Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader, whoever you are – because I did and I still do, more than you will ever really know."

Impaired by her words and too frozen to think of something, anything say too her, I got another surprise when Obi-Wan placed her small hands on my bare chest and leaned up and kissed me. It was a gentle kiss, but it told me all I needed to know about what she had just said to me and I knew that it was all true. But before I could even been spurred into responding because of that, the vision, the dream, whatever it was, faded, instantaneously. And when I woke up, I was screaming, no matter how much pain it caused me, I was beside myself with a need to go back to whatever that was. Looking down to my lap, panting heavily, I grimaced at the sight of my suit and the pure white walls of the hyperbaric chamber. The grimace was for another thought as well, it was something that I would have though abhorrent before I had fallen asleep. But I had been so rattled and so shocked by all of the things that she had told me in whatever that was that I could not possibly bring myself care about it.

Whatever that was, whatever that place was, it was paradise and I would give anything to go back to it. And now that I was awake and conscious, I was back in hell and I screamed because for the foreseeable future, there was no way out of it.

 


	4. Chapter Four

Standing at the foot of the bridge, I gazed out at the stars and pondered the strange turn that my life had seemed to take. There had been a time when the two women in my life had collided and one of them turned to me for answers. I had been surprised when Padme revealed to me that she had been very jealous of Obi-Wan and I had to say that I hid my amusement from her very well by the thought of it. Obi-Wan for all intents and purposes never seemed to be the type. She was an ardent practitioner and believer in the Jedi Code and she seemed to shut up or disappear whenever faced with the many men over the years that found her attractive. As her student I had witnessed that occurrence more than I liked, and I had to admit that I let my over protectiveness over her become very blatant then. I could remember glaring at these men from over her shoulder, warning them with my eyes that I would not tolerate their advances on my master, she was mine.

Master Kenobi was very  _"popular"_  amongst the teenaged-male students around the temple in those years and had the recipient of various looks and outright stares. I could remember in particular wanting to throttle Ferus Olin for making some very rude and lewd suggestions about not only his own master, Master Tachi, but my own as well. Regardless of that, I could see his point though. Those two were incredibly beautiful women. I had become angered by the fact that I felt that I was the only person who could think that way of her. But my friends and I were teenaged males, and they… they looked like that. When I finally understood that Obi-Wan had developed those feelings for me, she was able to masterfully hide her feelings behind her deep, clear blue eyes. Those eyes hadn't changed with age and as much as my instincts were telling me otherwise, she was still just as beautiful.

Obi-Wan or Padme, Padme or Obi-Wan… that debate had raged in my head for two consecutive years from the ages of sixteen to eighteen. I dreamt of Padme nightly, but Obi-Wan was there, she was there though all of it. And though there were rough patches through most of my time with her as my teacher, she brought a comfort to me that… that Padme couldn't bring. Even when I went to the Temple as an eight year old child, and even though my eighteen year old master was distraught with the death of her own master, she was still comforting. Her eyes, the color of the ocean, the color of life, they held me together after losing Qui-Gon too.

Obi-Wan Kenobi in the process of a year went from being a stranger, to my master and annoying older sister. Then those blended with her being an impediment, as was my thinking back then, and then when I became seventeen years old it all changed for me. When I became seventeen, I genuinely entertained the idea of a relationship with her, and then she became something else, then she stayed that way until that night that my master and I killed Master Windu. It wasn't until three days later at Mustafar that she became the intense focal point of my rage. My sister, the forbidden fruit of my feelings had turned my wife against me, caused her death, the death of my child and she had mutilated me and destroyed me. But that had changed, most of it had changed. My wife was dead, but my children were alive, they had survived my assault on their mother, and Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan loved me. The stalwart defender of the Jedi Code had an attachment and it was towards me – she had almost fallen to the Dark Side of the Force because I was threatened.

Obi-Wan Kenobi loved me.

_Me._

An ironic snort escaped me even as a half-smile curved my charred lips. There was no point in proceeding with this farce anymore, there was no denying that Anakin Skywalker yet lived inside of me and there was no denying I didn't want to destroy him anymore. In the process of a day, Obi-Wan had turned my life upside down again and now… now I didn't know who I was. A standard week ago, I was Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith and Supreme Commander of the Imperial Military. I hadn't wanted to be anything else then, there was nothing left for me there, but now there was, now it was almost as if I could see it. I could see Luke, I could see Leia and I could see Obi-Wan, I was watching them from the shadows, desperately wanting to be in the light. I would not deny it anymore, and I would channel my rage through other reasoning's to offset it, such as my infernal, accursed master.

Six months ago, I had paid a secret visit to Lama Su on Kamino, disguising the visit under a mission to hunt down a small group of Jedi near that planet. After having discovered the extent of my injuries and how much they had slowed me down, I had developed something of a fixation to do something, anything to heal myself. I agreed to give him… _leeway_  for some of his subversive activities in exchange for a full medical evaluation for a certain project without a report to the Emperor. The extent of my injuries had shocked even them, but Lama Su had assured me that they could repair the damage, but it would take time, a year to two years at first. I had secretly manipulated the military's movements in that system and the surrounding ones to alleviate the suspicions of their government and that had shaved six months off of that time table. When that time came, I would be whole once more, and the original use of that wholeness had been to regain my strength.

I would never been winded by the Jedi again, I was sure of that.

But now, now Obi-Wan and my children had turned my attention away from them and to my master and not an hour after I had woken from that dream-vision with Kenobi, I began to redirect to machinations towards my master. It would take some time, and I had to be keeping vigilant and secretive, but I would destroy my master, if I directly destroyed him after I regained the use of my lungs and my full body back or if it were in the indirect manner, I would do it. There was a whole range of ideas, such as directing some of my personally loyal servants to a hijack a Star Destroyer and crash it directly into the Imperial Palace. It my excitement fill my blood, but I had to remind myself that I would have to be patient, very patient.

I was not in the position politically to do so at the moment, but I was safely under the belief and assurance that I had the backing of almost the entire military. It would be some time before my master unleashed his plans to attain direct control over the military, plenty of time in fact, but by then, it would be far too late. I had a purpose now, I had my children now… I had Obi-Wan now, I had something to  _live_ for and they would never be safe until the Emperor was destroyed. The consolidation of my power would begin the moment I returned from Alderaan.

"Estimated time of arrival?" I rumbled over my shoulder at Captain Daraac.

After shooing away a subordinate, he stepped forward so that I could hear him more easily. "Twenty hours until arrival in the Alderaan Sector and another four hours from there to Alderaan itself, may I have permission to speak freely sir?"

I grumbled inwardly but nodded, "What is it Captain?"

"Why do you want us to hold position at the edge of the system? We all know that Alderaan isn't exactly loyal to his majesty the Emperor and to you," He asked and I sighed silently. I had been walking a fine line ever since I had emerged from my quarters after that encounter with Kenobi – I had to keep this a secret. My master had to think that I had destroyed Kenobi or that she had escaped. "A detachment of troops would be wise, and at the very least, I would suggest that we take the sh-…"

"Do not presume to suggest things to me without me asking you –  _fool_ ," I warned him, turning on my heels and using the force to tighten the pressure around his throat slightly. "My master has tasked me with a most important task on that planet, one that is none of your concern, I will go that planet alone and I will return without this ship, a fighter, a trooper, or you, I must go there alone, understood?"

He grasped at his throat and nodded frantically, "Y-yes my lord."

"Good," I pronounced, removing my grip and turning around. "You are dismissed."

* * *

**Alderaan, East Wing swimming pool of the Alderaan Winter Palace…**

"How many Jedi are left?" Ryal asked me as we both sat at a table on the edges of the massive pool and watched Luke do laps around it. The boy had an absolute love affair with it and I didn't want to dampen his mood by telling him that it would probably be the last time he'd be able to swim for a while, let him go a little crazy.

I bit my lip and pondered that question, that wasn't easy to answer off of the top of my head, because I simply didn't know. I had not encountered any Jedi by myself at all, we once had numbers in the tens of thousands, and with that number reduced to mere hundreds, I was sure of that, I doubted I'd ever see any of them again in this existence. And with that in mind, I could only speak for two of us, myself and Master Yoda, turning back to him, I smiled, "I can't say for sure, I can only confirm that there are two of us left, Master Yoda is alive, and so am I…"

"I heard that Yoda fought the Emperor to a draw," Ryal said with an almost child-like wonder over his subject. I nodded and reflected back on his recounting of his duel with Emperor Palpatine, Darth Sidious, whatever he chose to call himself. I would have given anything to see that, I held an enthusiasm for that fight similar to the one that Ryal did. If this had been over five years ago, I would have been repulsed by the idea of aggressiveness, but there was no more code left to live by.

That wasn't to say that I wasn't going to run out and kill someone just to fall to the Dark Side, but the restrictions that had been placed on me by the code were no longer valid in my opinion. I had to keep Luke safe at all costs and I would kill anyone who threatened him, I could no longer rebuff advances by men by showing them my lightsaber like I used too, and I had to live again, I had to do if for Luke. I had to start celebrating Birthday's again, and holidays, I had to put monetary gain for Luke's sake ahead of the good of the galaxy. Things were different now and to be frank, I wouldn't have been even unbalanced by the thought of the Sith's demise. I was sure that if Master Yoda had not just lost ten thousand of his students within the process of only a few days, he might have been able to overpower the Sith and destroy him. But he didn't and I couldn't dwell on it anymore, one day, someone would get him and the Jedi would have the final word.

"That's what he told me as well," I nodded, looking absently at Luke.

"If not even Yoda could kill Palpati-…" But I cut him off with a Luke, there was so much that this man did not know and I didn't care if I was telling him potentially secret information. This man did not understand that event for what it really was at the core. It wasn't just the collapse of the Republic and the take over a tyrannical despot. From what I had gleamed from Master Yoda and my communion with the Force and Qui-Gon, they had been planning this for a very long time, several millennia. It was the fault of the Jedi that we let them get away with their evil plan.

"Yoda is one of the most powerful Jedi in Galactic History," I corrected him, feeling slightly annoyed by the man's obvious ignorance. "If it had been earlier, if it had been before the war had started, Yoda could have defeated him. But we allowed that Sith demon to amass his power and gather his strength, and by the time we realized what was happening, it was too late. Palpatine had the advantage, and it is a test to Master Yoda's strength that he fought him to a draw, more or less. The reason Palpatine won that duel was because by the time it happened, he was too powerful and by mere chance as well. In our arrogance, we let the Sith grow…"

Ryal blinked and picked up his cup, "But with only two of you left-…"

"We thought we had exterminated the Sith a thousand years ago, but they did survive, only one survived and he spawned an entire legion of Sith that brought down a government that had stood for twenty-five thousand years," I told him and his eyes widened, the Force was very useful in determining where we went wrong. I could still remember Master Yoda's self-deprecation that he had let his blindness take down the entire galaxy. "One Sith Lord, just one was responsible for the plan to bring down the Republic and the Jedi – he was patient, but the Jedi have been in worse situations. There have been some instances where only five Jedi remained in the entire Galaxy and yet we still endure, if we have to wait several thousand years to defeat the Sith, we will. But I wish and I hope that I live to see that day."

In my communion with Qui-Gon after the death of Padme and the rise of the Sith's control over the entire galaxy, he had revealed to me the secret of the Sith's survival over a millennia ago. It wasn't so much of a history lesson, but simply vision, upon vision, flashes of history playing out in my mind. It was fairly brilliant, and all too much like Sith, and through the orders blindness we had allowed them to do what they did. For future Jedi, and I was absolutely determined that there would be future Jedi, they would not make the same mistake as the order did in this age, to allow our ancient enemies to deliver the final blow from the darkness.

By the time I finished my rant, I looked over to him as he watched Luke and I noticed that he was smiling and nodding. It was true – there had been times when our numbers had waned so much that all of the teachings of the Jedi rested in  _one_ fully-trained Jedi Knight. Just one, only one – the Sith had obviously perfected that strategy, but so had we and we had survived more times than they had. If I was relegated to never seeing the day the Emperor and the Sith were defeated, then so be it, I had learned a long time ago to trust history, and in almost every case, History had looked upon the Jedi as the winners. If it were two or three decades from now or a hundred years from now, I was confident that we would be able to liberate the Galaxy from the Sith. All we needed was time, all we needed was a moment when the Emperor was vulnerable, then all would be all right everywhere.

"Sith are cunning, evil creatures that will use any means to justify any ends, believe me when I tell you this: that path leads to serious mistakes," I told me sagely as Luke went onto his third lap around the large pool. "One day, Palpatine is going to do something that will antagonize enough people that he will lose. His arrogance, his over confidence and even the pure, murky black hole in the Force that I fell whenever I practically think about him, it will be his downfall. He will make the mistake that most Sith and most rulers make: he will tighten his fist so much that he will whip enough resistance and that resistance will destroy him…"

I turned back to him and grinned, "Even though the Sith have had an impressive amount of time to keep everything heading towards the goal that Palpatine had achieved, we rebuilt the entire order on the teachings of one woman. The Sith will fail like they always do, and for now, it is their galaxy, don't get used to it though."

"Damn you Jedi, you really are inspiring," Ryal grinned, yawned and shook his head. "My parents were so thrilled that I had not become one, but after I saw what the Empire had done to them and slandered their name, I felt guilty for agreeing."

I shook my head and sighed, "You don't have to feel guilty for not joining the workers branch of the order, as far as I know of what became of AgriCorp, the participants were murdered by Darth Vader or turned by the Emperor. That has to be one of the things that I would ever lose control about, those people couldn't subvert a government if they could and yet they still massacred the majority."

They had also murdered children, and there was an even worse sight in the nursery, but as I recalled, those… those infants weren't killed by a lightsaber. It still filled me with unimaginable pain to see that, but, for whatever part of me that still hoped that Vader had a conscious, I was glad that he hadn't murdered sleeping babies. But the AgriCorp Farmers, they fed underprivileged people around the Galaxy! It took a lot of strength to strike down and torture a barely trained Force adept when that adept couldn't possibly defeat a fully trained Jedi turned Sith Lord. I hoped that if Anakin ever came back to us, came back to me, he would find some way to expunge all of that horrid, gruesome death off of his psyche and soul. He might not ever forget what he had done, but I would hold firm to what I believed, that somewhere under that hate and anger was a man who was sorry for what he had done. When the time came, I would make him see that he could be forgiven.

Just as Ryal was about to respond to my rant, I was interrupted by the frantic, almost excited, all-too very familiar whistle from a certain astromech droid. I turned in my chair and looked back towards the entrance and I was surprised by the smile on my face. I never treated the protocol droid C-3P0 and the astromech R2-D2 as living things as Anakin and his wife seemed to do, and I wasn't that fond of the protocol droid, but I had to admit that I had a soft spot for R2-D2. The little droid that I had first encountered almost twenty years ago had been too irrelevant me for most of those years, but in my travels with Anakin, I myself had picked up Anakin's habits and I thought of him as a living thing, he was a brilliant, tough little droid that had survived countless battle after battle. C-3PO was a creation of Anakin himself and although the droid was annoying, overly-dramatic and quite talkative when it wasn't wanted, he was a monument onto himself. The droid knew millions of languages – he had served a Galactic Senator for a time after all. He was very smart, maybe as smart as smart as his astromech companion and most of all he had survived all of this time as well. The last time that I saw these two was when Luke and I had returned to Alderaan after nearly being discovered by those Imperial Troops that had killed his Aunt and Uncle. Every other time I had been on world with Luke, they had been off with Bail in his duties on Coruscant, it was a pleasant sight to take in, and it did send a shiver of sadness, extreme sadness through me.  _'Anakin,'_  I sighed morosely even as I smiled at the approaching droids, he did love them like they were his family. I wondered if he did miss the two droids.

"Hello R2, C-3PO, how are you two?" I asked them lightly as they both came to me.

R2 warbled something that sounded like a happy retort and even in my limited knowledge of interpretation of what the little droid 'said' – I knew that he was happy, but as for C-3PO, he was a bit different. In his typical style, the droid shifted nervously and seemed to cock his head, "I'm afraid that we've never met Miss-…?"

I blinked at him in confusion for a moment and then I remembered that Bail had the droid's mind wiped after taking possession of him. Smiling at the droid, I decided not to press him on the fact that he did know me, "Miss Varsin will do."

Crossing me legs, I turned my head to R2 as he sent a series of beeps and noises at C-3PO and wordlessly, the protocol droid translated, "R2 would like to know if the young man in the swimming pool is the son of Master… Master Anakin?"

It was a shame that C-3PO didn't remember the person who made him, but knowing the droid, he would probably short circuit if he found out his maker was indeed Darth Vader, the most feared man in the Galaxy. Turning to R2, I smiled sadly at him and nodded, "Yes R2, that's Luke, why don't you and 3PO say hello?"

The little droid let out another sad noise, but beeped in affirmation before making another noise to the protocol droid and turning to go towards the entrance of the swimming pool that Luke was slowly making his way too. It was only Ryal's question that broke me out of another self-imposed loop of sad thoughts, "Did Skywalker build those droids? I knew that they arrived in the palace with the Princess, but I hadn't seen them a day before that, I've always wondered about it."

"The astromech belonged to Leia's Mother when she was Queen of Naboo, and for all intents and purposes during the war, he belonged to Anakin as well, but Anakin built the protocol droid," I observed as I watched the two droids converse with the now excited and clearly amused Luke. "The Viceroy and I both agreed that keeping them safe with Leia was the best thing to do, with the information that R2 contains it was best he stay here. But in actuality, I they belong to both of the children."

"Can you take the damned protocol droid?" He broke the silence and I let out a laugh and a continuous one as he kept his deadpan tone. I knew how he felt, I had felt the same way about both of them at one time, but they grew on me. "Please?"

I turned and smirked, "I wouldn't feel right, he might feel just fine here."

"Leia isn't fond of him," Ryal rolled his eyes and leaned back in the chair.

"Well neither was I, but Anakin loved him because he created him, and I couldn't break up that pair for anything," I smiled and shook my head, watching as Luke crawled out of the water and sat down on the steps, listening to the two droids bicker. "Besides, there will come a time when you'll miss his constant fussing."

* * *

I tried to reach out and feel the Force and when I did, I felt nothing. I felt the same wall that was around my senses when I tried to reach out and touch it last night in my sort of dream with Anakin last night. And sure enough, as I slowly began to regain my senses, I opened my eyes and found that I was attached to the tall, strong, muscled body of my former student. Opening my eyes without moving my position, I moved my head upwards on Anakin's chest and was momentarily taken aback by the fact that he was staring right back at me. Most shocking of all was the fact that his eyes were not that shade of orange and red that they the last time I had seen them in person, they were as blue as the sky, endless depths of pure blue. When I opened my mouth to try and say something, a wry smirk came upon his lips and I knew in that moment that things were forever changed between us.

"We can't keep meeting like this Kenobi," Vader smirked and looked our bodies that were so close to each other. "However this time you seem to be a little more aggressive with me? I can't say that I'm against it though, feel free to carry on…"

I snorted and did blush, some much so that Vader must have noticed it by the laugh that rocked his chest, but I did not even bother changing my position, "I've been doing a little reading today, trying to figure out what this is, and I discovered that I was correct, this is our bond. When we focus on it, it'll happen nightly, it's been documented to do that, so the question is Vader – do you think about me?"

"I've been thinking about you a lot lately, I'll have to admit that," Vader replied with obvious amusement at his own sarcasm lacing his voice. "But I know these types of things well enough to know that it works both ways, so, same question."

I looked down at the firm and muscled expanse of his chest and to the door of the room which appeared to be a manifestation of a suite that Anakin and I had shared some years ago on a diplomatic mission before the war began. It should have come to know surprise that my mind would drift back to this place because it was the very moment that I realized that Anakin was no longer that little boy, considering we shared that bed. Instead of answering, I rolled over and looked up at the ceiling for a moment before turning back to him, "Do you recognize this room Anakin?"

He blinked, obviously okay with me referring to him as Anakin, and I suspected that I was probably one of very few people, if not the only person who could use his proper name. A look of confusion passed over his face and for a full minute, I wondered if he hadn't remembered, but then, very slowly, recognition appeared on his face and he stared up at the ceiling like I did only moments before. Then he began to laugh again, "This was the room that you and I stayed in on that diplomatic mission between the mining consortium and its rivals in this system. I remember throwing a bit of a fit and you finally caved and asked the council if you and I could have some downtime here, this is… this is that resort you splurged on."

I smiled and nodded, "I spent two months of stipends to get this room."

"And I got a really bad sunburn on my back from swimming all day and you had to help me apply the relieving solve on my back for the rest of the week," Vader chuckled and looked back towards the balcony. "I was nervous to have you doing that too me, but at the same time I was completely excited for it, I was seventeen."

"And I was the twenty-seven year old woman getting looks from the other guests, I still don't know if the women were jealous of me or the men were jealous of you," I laughed and shook my head, that had been a surreal moment. "By the Force that was so awkward, I figured out why my mind is making this appear around us, this was the place where it finally occurred to me that you were not a little boy anymore. If I remember it correctly, it was started because you walked out of the refresher in just a towel, and I could remember thinking I was such a perverted-…"

I was cut off by more laughing from Vader and when I looked up to him, I could see the most pleased smile on his face, I did not need to feel him in the Force to know that he was very happy with this. No matter how much he might not wanted this to happen again, I could tell that he wouldn't mind if it happened more, and then a sad realization came upon me. This might be the only place in which he kept in touch with his humanity, when he was awake, out of his bond with me, he was Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith and if this continued, I would ensure that while here, he was Anakin Skywalker, a person. Something was telling me that he felt the same exact way and that somehow, he was pleased and very happy to return here.

"Imagine being me, I was seventeen years old and having my back rubbed by someone like you," He retorted dryly, his face conforming into an amused snicker at the apparent memory. "You looked surprised that I felt that way about you Kenobi, did you think I was blind? After all I was the same gender as all of the other men that tried to get you to go to bed with them, I wasn't blind or stupid."

I let out a laugh and hit him lightly on the side before letting out a sigh, "I guess up until we stayed here, I didn't let those thoughts in – but from this moment on I did and this was the root of it all. No, I guess I realized that you looked at me that way too, but I remember how you'd look at Siri and I thought that all of you did it and it would pass. Siri would just laugh about it, but I never dwelled on it long enough…"

The look that he gave me could only be described as gaping, "You two knew?!"

"Oh please," I scoffed and laughed. "I could remember a sparring match with Siri, and I turned and I saw you, Ferus Olin and Tru Veld watching us. It caught my attention because you and Tru never seemed to get along with Ferus, but there you three were, watching us like we were the most interesting thing in the galaxy. And keep in mind that you were having trouble with your mental shields at this time and it was fairly easy to know what you were thinking. You were quite obvious about it Anakin, so was Ferus and Tru. She couldn't look you three in the eye without laughing for the next week and I tried my best not think about it all, and I didn't."

"You were quite…  _popular_  with my friends Master," Vader said with a warm chuckle.

I blinked silently, blossoming and practically crying with relief inside at the obvious slip up, and when Vader didn't seem to mention it, I decided not to mention it either. I was sure that it was a small slip and he would be careful not to say it again, but it was nice to hear it again. Sighing lazily, I looked up to him and smiled wickedly, "I know you thought the female masters were just so close minded and so… for lack of a better word,  _virginal_ … but we had our moments too. Siri obviously thought Ferus and yourself were attractive, but you two were very young and she felt she'd cross a boundary that she shouldn't if she entertained the very idea of it."

"When did you finally accept the fact that you wanted me?" He sounded very smug.

"About two months after this," I indicated to the room and shuddered uneasily at what came next, this was when Padme came back into the equation. "Then you started have your dreams about your mother and Padme, there was nothing that I could do for you mother, but your dreams about Padme made me very… jealous…"

Vader raised an eyebrow, "Jealous?"

"Yes, I was jealous over her," I scowled. "And I knew that I inserted myself between you two, you'd presumably despise me for the foreseeable future and it was the same thing with Palpatine, I didn't have anything justifiable to end it, so I let it fester. Not having to obey the code to the letter now, I can tell you that your relationship with her was not the issue – it was the attachment in itself. I let my attachment towards you drive me to viciously kill someone, and yours-… well…"

Vader was silent for a moment before finishing, "…mine led me down this road."

"Was that what it was? After all is said and done, was that what caused it? It wasn't for the Empire or for power, it was because of Padme?" I desperately wanted to know the answer to this question – if he lusted for power, I wanted to know why he lusted for power and if he did it for Padme, at least I could say that he fell to the Dark Side for all the right reasons. When he hesitated and finally nodded, I sighed and leaned back down to his chest, that much I could live with, if he did it for her.

"As horrible as it is to say, I understand know why you did it," I replied quietly, looking at the wall on the other side of the room and ignoring the fact that he was idly stroking my hair. "I would have helped you, I might not have liked it Anakin, but I would have helped you because she made you happy. I violated the Jedi commitment for you a number of times, helping your secret family would not have mattered to me. But, there's no point in dwelling on the past, so I'll stay silent."

Vader shook his head, "No – you're right, I did what I did to protect them and I willingly dropped everything that I had ever known to protect them. Granted I didn't know you'd react like that, I thought that it would ruin everything if I went down that route. But if I could go back and change things, I want you to know what I would. Not for the dogmatic Jedi, but for the pain I caused her, you, my children."

And that… that was enough, I could live with that.

There was still much darkness in him – that much I was sure of and I didn't need to touch the Force to remember that. But something had changed inside of him as well, I knew that too. Perhaps the focal point of his unimaginable anger was no longer turned towards me, but towards the man that had really unleashed all of this upon him, Darth Sidious. I could only hope for that and I was not prepared the rather pleasant mood that had settled between us. This connection through the Force, our bond, whatever it was I was thankful for it, it had allowed me to try and make him understand that I was not his enemy. In fact, it allowed me to impress upon him the very real fact that if there was one person in the entire galaxy with lesser desire to kill him or to even injure him, it would be me, no matter the personality that he wore, he was still Anakin Skywalker to me and that did matter.

He was silent for a moment before turning back towards me, presumably watching for my reaction as I continued to stare up at the ceiling. I highly suspected that he was going to tell me something that he debated should be any of my business and I felt pleased that he felt I could be trusted with the information. "I've commissioned a special project for the Kamino Cloners – originally, I admit that its purpose was to restore my health to what it was so that I would never be winded by a Jedi again."

I turned and smirked at him as he sent me a mock look of distaste, but by the light smile that came after it, I knew that he was teasing, "Now I have another purpose for it, just know that providing that my master doesn't order me to level Kamino or that Lama Su doesn't do something foolish, I can sufficiently shield them for the time that it'll take for the project to be complete. After that, my master will be too vulnerable to retaliate –I'm going to kill him Kenobi I'm going to grind him to dust."

As much as I detested the idea of violence on that scale, I took a moment to consider the subject and the receiver on that violence and my aversion to it was alleviated. He must have seen the slight smile that appeared on my face and I could almost feel his surprise at the ease of the smile, "First you admit your attachment, then you admitted that you murdered people in cold blood because of me, and then you admit that you wanted me, and now you're smiling at the prospect of someone's miserable death. Who are you and what have done with Obi-Wan Kenobi? And on the off chance that you are her, do you have a brain injury?"

I laughed and shook my head, he hadn't lost his sense of humor, I'd give him that and to be honest, I did not anticipate him having to use his sense of humor in charge of the Empire's Military. Turning back to him, I was still struck by the fact that his eyes weren't the typical orange and red of the Sith, but as blue as the first day that I had ever seen them. Perhaps it was a manifestation of my mind, but I hoped that it was real in the physical world, "Let's just say that I've had to let go of some of the vows, such as the non-attachments over the past few years and… bend the core fundamentals of the code itself. I'm not going to take any chances with Luke with me-…"

I suppressed a smile as he tightened his arm around me and seemed to pull me closer, this, no matter if it technically wasn't real, was the most intimately close I had ever been to him since we had met. But it wasn't a cheap way to get him to touch me, what I was saying was true, "…I haven't abandoned the code outright, I don't think I ever will, but in the current climate that I live in, I can't act like I used to without screaming "Jedi" and suddenly having your troops hot on my tail. Not to mention those lovely, what are they called Inquisitors? Where did they come from?"

Vader was silent for a moment and then when he gave me the explanation, it sent a shiver of sadness down my spine, "They originated and got most of their numbers from AgriCorp – there was a lot of resentment there, repressed quite understandably, I'm sure you felt the same thing, he was able to play off of it all."

Despite my abhorrence of what those poor men and women had been subjected too to get them to turn into dark acolytes, I did understand it because there was a time when I myself was almost in the position of being a farmer for the rest of my life. I was young and impulsive and trouble containing my temper and I wanted nothing more to be a Jedi, if I had repressed that anger enough, I would jump at the chance to become a servant of the Sith. Sighing, I shook my head and looked back at the wall head of me, there was nothing that could be done, "Are your minions aware of where I am or that I'm alive, or worse yet, are they aware Luke and-…"

"They are not as far as I know," Vader shook his head cutting me off, as if the thought itself was repulsive to me and I suspected it was. I noticed that the hand on his chest was suddenly balled into a fist. "And if they do, I'll do my best to throw them off, but if they get lucky, I will know about it and they will deal with me."

"Are they as dangerous as you or your master?" I couldn't help but ask.

He chuckled again and shook his head, "No, don't misunderstand – they are very dangerous and have power, but they're trained to handle average Jedi,  _you_  have never been an average Jedi. Even if they managed to encounter you before I could crush their throats, I have no doubt that you'd be able to handle them quite well."

"Your show of faith is a reward in itself," I replied dryly, part of which was a joke.

And without warning, he turned me around to where I was directly facing him and grinned at me. This was a surreal moment for me – I was one of the few individuals who knew who Darth Vader was before he became Darth Vader, because of that I had developed my own opinions and perceptions between Vader and Anakin. This was not Darth Vader I was lying in a bed with, this was Anakin Skywalker and I suspected that he knew that just as well as I did. Blinking at him, I decided that now was the better time than ever to ask this question, "Is this Anakin lying with, or is this Darth Vader? I could never really make it out – on one hand, you sound exactly like the Anakin Skywalker that I know, and on the other, you sound like a Lord of the Sith."

He was silent and we just lay there, with locked eyes and I could tell that he was in deep contemplation on my question. It must have been an awfully large and complicated question for him to answer. If my studies of the Sith were more facts then legend, then it should have been no surprise that intense immersion of the Dark Side changed you completely. That much was clear when he could look people in the eye, people that he had grown up with and grown to care for, and stab them in the heart. But the thing that made him different from the many Jedi before him who had fallen to the Dark Side was that he needed emotional contact, he needed attachment, he that needed love. It would never be fully extinguished from him, buried? Perhaps – but never gone. I hoped that the revelation would reawaken that in him and the more selfish, compartmentalized portion of my mind hoped that what I had revealed to him last night would help it along, hopefully I was correct.

"For a long time," He began slowly, his eyes glassy for a moment, as if he was recalling some distant memory. When he snapped back to life, the life snapped back into his eyes as well. "I didn't want to be Anakin Skywalker anymore, there was nothing left for me there, my child was dead, my wife was dead, the Jedi were dead, everything I had ever known was gone and I could never get it back, ever."

He leaned in closer until our foreheads were touching, he never broke his eye contact with me, "Darth Vader is a part of me, whether or not I like it, and I've come to the understanding that a part of me will always be him. But to answer your question: I don't know – now that I have something to live for again I don't have fall into the persona of Vader to not feel completely broken anymore. I don't know who I am anymore, I'm not completely Darth Vader and I'm not completely Anakin Skywalker…"

He paused and closed his eyes, his face a mask of tranquility, even though outside of this Force built world that were inhabiting, things were quite different, "…I'm a mixture of the best and worst parts of both, I've done things… terrible things that I can never fix, but I have not completely lost my soul, and thanks to you, I think I've gotten some of it back. I'm both Obi-Wan, I'm both of those men together…"

To carry so much pain, to carry it all on his shoulders, it made my heart break for him, no matter what atrocities he had committed, Anakin Skywalker was still in there, trapped with no incentive to escape. Reaching up, I tentatively pressed my lips against his, not taking it any further other than running my fingers through his thick head of hair. With his grip around my waist pulling me tightly against him, I kept our foreheads together as I opened my eyes and fixed him with a very small smile. I fought down a grin when I began to stroke his cheeks and the ensuing shiver that resulted in him closing his eyes and to absorb the feeling. This poor man, this poor broken man, he was a Sith, a Jedi, a caring, but broken and beaten down being all wrapped up into one person.

"I can't be sure that things will ever be the same between us… obviously," I let my sentence drift off dryly and motioned down to our very intimate position in the bed. As he broke off into a chuckle, I fought down my own and continued slowly. "But what I can be sure is this – you still have people who love you and care about your wellbeing, Luke loves you despite the fact that whenever he thinks about you or feels you, he feels intense sadness. He still idolizes you thanks to the stories that I tell him about you, and I love you too. It kills me inside to think of everything that you carry around, it hurts eve worse to think that I put you in that suit and dropped even more pain and hate on your shoulders. You have wounds that will take time to heal but I guarantee this-…"

I kept our eye lock as I moved a hand to his chest, and put my hand over his heart. Again, I was amazed by the vividness of this place, I could feel his heartbeat, "If you let me in, even one last time, I'll give it my all to heal them."

Vader-… no, Anakin offered me a smile and leaned forward to kiss me again and then laid his head gently on the soft, large comfortable pillow. Our eye contact never broke and even as he let out a loud, very content yawn, his eyes never left mine. But what made me lay my head down next to him was the words that he whispered to me, as if he was telling me a secret, a secret that only he had ever intended to keep. It said a lot about the moment, "… _Thank you_ …"

* * *

**Imperial Star Destroyer Exactor en route to Alderaan…**

**Personal Quarters of Captain Daraac**

I folded my arms across my chest and stood at attention as the small hologram of the heavily cloaked figure recited my orders to me. It was meant to be this way – I knew nothing else other than to fulfill my assignments to the letter. Ever since the day that I emerged from the cylinder and began my work for my master, his word had been my absolute command. Lord Vader was a good commander, despite his disciplinary methods, and as much as I wanted to tell him to eject me out the nearest airlock for his safety, the very fact that the Emperor himself had ordered me to watch him and not to alert him prevented that. I could almost feel his piercing eyes through me even from his holo-projection – my master was simply hypnotic like that, every conversation.

"Lord Vader's duty is to destroy the Jedi – he has felt a Jedi on Alderaan and if wishes to go alone, I will not stop him," I could swear that my master was smirking, but due to the size of the communication, I couldn't see without alerting him. "Vader is a loyal beast, and this Jedi in particular will enrage him to the point where I have no doubt that he will destroy her. Do nothing Captain, I am ordering you to follow his instructions to the letter, despite the concern."

I blinked once, but knew better than to try my luck and bowed completely at the waist and then saluted him, "I will do as you command my master."

"Good," He nodded one more time and then his face contorted into a smile, and a rather revolting one due to the state of his appearance. "You are a valued servant Captain, enjoy this time you have to yourself and then report back to me once Lord Vader has returned from Alderaan, I will give you your secondary assignments after I give Vader his."

I hid a scowl but put a grateful smile on my face, "I will, thank you very much."

The Emperor nodded once and the image of his dissolved and I fell back into my chair and blew out a tired sigh. I did not relish serving him, but it was natural impulse, something that he had instilled in me. I did have a sense of loyalty to Vader, but until I could find a way to break it, which I would purse until the day that I die, my loyalty to my commanding officer would always be overridden by my master. And I could only blindly follow his orders until the day he removed me from this ship and sent me somewhere else.

 


	5. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

* * *

**Obi-Wan's Point of View**

A smile was on my face as I opened my eyes from sleep. I knew that the world that I had been in for the last two nights with Vader was a manifestation of the Force itself, but it still felt real. I still felt the feeling of his hands around my waist, his lips against mine, and as I slowly rose up in the bed with what had to have been an idiotic grin on my face, I felt good, I felt better than I had in years. For the first time in five years, there was something to grasp onto, something to believe in. I had hope for these past five years, but hope was simply hope, and the flaw with hope was the odds that needed to be considered. The odds that I had previously believed of Vader… _Anakin_  developing a mind of his own and realizing that his master was no good for him, where slim to none. I underestimated him, I didn't realize how far the extent of his pain went, and I also underestimated the effect that his children and I would have on him, it was nice to have something real to grasp and not just hopes and dreams. The smile wouldn't leave my face today.

In the suite that had been provided for me by Bail and Breha, I looked over at my reflection in the large mirror hanging on the wall next to the bed and began to laugh at myself in utter amusement. Sitting up in the big soft, downy bed, in my black sleeping clothes, I _was_  grinning like an idiot. My hair had been tied up tightly before I went to sleep last night and it was now a loose bun in complete and total disarray, my eyes were still baring the characteristics of heavy sleep – for all intents and purposes though it looked as if I had just woken from a fitful sleep. The truth however was that I was relaxed, more relaxed then I had been in years. In fact, I would go further and say that I hadn't felt more at peace with myself since I was a child, before Qui-Gon, before potentially spending the rest of my life on Bandomeer, before Anakin, I hadn't been this relaxed since I was a small child. It reminded me of a time when all was well, when I felt that nothing could go wrong. I had been given an immeasurable amount of peace, clarity and happiness by these encounters with Anakin, they made me feel so content, so relaxed, it was very nice.

Falling back into the pillows with the biggest smile on my face, I scowled slightly as the beeping on the com-board on the bedside table broke me out of my very happy thoughts. It was someone requesting to come in. Sighing, I leaned over and pressed the button, very annoyed to have this blissful feeling ruined, "What is it?"

"Mistress Varsin," C-3PO's irritatingly cheerful voice sounded from the speaker next to the control panel. I was quite tempted to crush the droid into pieces, and noticing the bad effect that it was having on me, I released the irritation into the Force. "Her Majesty the Queen has instructed me to bring you breakfast in bed, and to relay the message that she will watch Master Luke for the day, a small reprieve."

A small smile tugged on my lips as I pressed the button to unlock the door and then pressed the button next to it to open it. Breha and I had become friends before the end of the Clone Wars – she was a wonderful woman and there was no one alive that I trusted more to give Leia a more fulfilling life. She had always been very kind to me, she had been very kind to Luke and her hospitality seemed to have no bounds, even with the prospect of Darth Vader coming to her home. When the protocol droid shuffled in with the tray, I looked up and smiled at him, Anakin created the droid to keep his mother company, and I knew he would be pleased to know that he was doing the same with Leia. Like his creator, he did grow on you.

Sharing pleasantries with the droid as he set the tray of breakfast down on my lap, I watched as he shuffled back out of the room to give me my privacy and I drifted back into my thoughts. Picking up the Muja Fruit and taking a lazy bite into it, I realized that Vader would be arriving today. Today was the day that I had replayed in my mind over and over again. There were so many scenarios that could play out today, a lot of them were bad, some were worse and there was one that could quite possibly seal the fate of the Galaxy forever. If my newly reborn trust in him was misplaced and the result of a ruse on his part, I was quite sure by this time tomorrow, I would be dead, Bail would be dead, Alderaan would be subjugated and the children would be on the first Star Destroyer to the Emperor. Shaking my head, I couldn't allow doubt and fear to cloud my decision. When it came to his children, and I was even allowing myself to believe that when it came to me, he was still Anakin Skywalker. He had a heart and he had a mind, he knew that the Emperor would twist and destroy those children and Anakin wouldn't allow that to happen.

Breha was less than thrilled to know that he was coming here. Her husband had not told her of the plan evidently and when we decided to tell her last night – it took several hours for the both of us to calm her down. She now understood that we had no alternative choice, with one choice, Leia died, there was nothing more to say, and at least with the option that we had chosen, there was a chance that Vader would leave us all in peace. Even if I had told the both of them about my 'visits' with him the past two nights, I highly doubted that it would have alleviated their fears. It was because of the reputation that he had cultivated over the past five years that made me believe that if Bail and Breha were to ever let go of their abject fear and hatred of him, then they'd have to see it for themselves. Taking a deep breath in, I tried to let go of the new found anxiety that was creeping its way into me. No matter his beliefs or philosophy, he was a man of his word and he would not bring chaos to what Bail and I had tried to build for the children. I bit into the fruit again and decided that I would enjoy what time I had left before he arrived.

* * *

**Queen Breha Organa's Chambers…**

**Breha Organa's Point of View**

I feared for the boy, I really did and it was not because of Obi-Wan's ability to raise him and protect him. In those aspects he was safer then Leia was, but when it came to what united all three of them, the Force, he was in more danger. If Leia chose to explore those abilities when she was older, then that was her right, but until then, we would try to keep them suppressed. Luke didn't have that advantage because undoubtedly Obi-Wan would train him and nurture his abilities. It would make him a bigger target and subject them to the pressure of the Empire, but none of that would matter if Vader took it upon himself to remove both Leia and Luke from our custody. Vader was an hour away from landing – he was coming here to my home, tainting it with his overwhelmingly evil presence. It was enough to make me sick, but luckily for both Vader and me – Leia needed to have a blood transfusion. It was a risk, it was an even bigger risk to adopt Leia in the first place, but her life, my husbands and my own would be decided by the events of today.

Smiling as Luke continued to read the story off of the datapad to me, my mind drifted to my Jedi friend that had taken the boy as her own. Her place in all of this was worse for her then for the rest of us in some respects, not only because she was a Jedi, but because of the person that Darth Vader was. I was no fool, I might have been friendly with Padme, but I knew an infatuation when I saw one and when Obi-Wan looked at Anakin Skywalker, I saw something there. She would never admit it to me, I knew that, it was against the Jedi belief, but I knew she felt something for him. To be in love with a man like that, I couldn't fathom the idea of it having to hear about his 'exploits' on the news, it must have been very painful for her and I felt the utmost sympathy for her. Shaking my head clear of the thoughts that were now racing through my mind, I absently patted Luke on the shoulder in encouragement as he sounded out a long word. I had faith in Obi-Wan, she would protect us from Vader if he tried to do take the children, of that I was very sure of.

* * *

**Darth Vader's Personal Shuttle…**

**Darth Vader's Point of View**

I had no reason to be as nervous as I was, or at least that I was what I trying to tell myself throughout the entire trip from my ship to the planet. I had to remember why I was making the journey to this planet – it was not a social call. I had to remember that Leia, my daughter, was on the verge of dying and it was abundantly clear that I was the only one who could save her. Organa and I despised each other, I didn't need the Force to know that, but even he had to admit that my coming to his home needed to happen for our mutual interest, Leia. And I had to admit that I needed him, I needed both Organa and Obi-Wan because there was no other way for my children to be safe. Unfortunately there was no place for them with me, and even if that were possible, I'd want be around them all of the time, but that was impossible. Until they were older and capable of defending themselves, and not to mention until the Emperor was dead, the best place for the both of them was where they were at. I did indeed need Bail as much as hated it.

Trying to focus on the datapad that Captain Daraac had given to me on my departure in an attempt to distract myself from the unsettling feeling of utter anxiety and nervousness, I knew it was completely useless. Since Mustafar, I had lived life completely in the guise of Darth Vader and that man had no fear, he had no emotions other than rage and abject anger. In the time since I had become Darth Vader, I could actually count the times I had been nervous or anxious on less than two hands. But in this moment of practically bathing into those two emotions deep inside a blatantly subversive system and approaching a planet that fostered rebellion, I could safely say that this moment was more terrifying for me then all of the others and it was borne out of simply meeting a pair of five year old children. After nearly breaking the datapad in my hands out of the frustration of these two emotions, I tried a different approach, one that I knew I would never have considered only days ago. Looking back up to Alderaan, I kept my gaze locked onto the blue orb and I reached out in the Force, calling out for Obi-Wan in our bond.

The Force was a mystifying thing, and it superseded all petty fights, emotions and bonds to enact its will on everything. In the aftermath of our duel on Mustafar, our bond had been tattered and silenced on my end, but ever since we had been visiting each other in our visions in our sleep, the bond was strong again. It had been there since I was eight years old, and for these past few years it had felt strange living with it muted. Now that it was back in full force, stronger and easier than ever, it felt like coming home, like all of my problems could be solved by just touching her in the Force. Her presence soothed, that comforting stroke of her presence made me so comfortable that I found myself smiling half of the time. It was no different this time when I found her presence in the Force. While I was bombarded by feelings of excitement, nervousness and determination, and surprise when I touched her in the Force, I felt that entire cadre of emotions convert into calm in an instant. The smile that came over my face was a mixture of gratitude and amusement. No matter how time had passed and no matter what I had achieved, I still had not developed the ability to calm myself at an instant. I suppose I shouldn't have been shocked when Obi-Wan, a Jedi Master in the truest sense, could do it all will. I felt much like I did when I was boy in that instant.

Here I was, Dark Lord of the Sith and commander of the largest war machine that the galaxy had ever known, but deep down, I was still that little boy wanting to be comforted by my master. I didn't know if I should have been embarrassed or amused over the fact that it still comforted me, no matter what the situation was.

It was then that I felt another presence in the periphery of my own, one that I felt once before and not long after I had felt Obi-Wan's only days before. Turning my full attention onto it, I could swear that I my heart skipped a beat, because of who it was who was reaching out. A presence not completely unlike my own, I definitely felt a trace of myself in the presence, but I also felt the unmistakable presence of Padme in the presence as well – my smile was so big that it was almost painful. It was worth it to feel the feeling of my son. Knowing that this was my son filled me with joy, unbridled joy – something that I had not felt in a number of years. There he was – a small, but very bright spot in the Force, one that I felt compelled to reach out too. He radiated pure innocence in a galaxy that was a very dangerous place. It was refreshing, and it was even more refreshing to encounter someone, particularly a Force Sensitive being that didn't recoil from him at first touch. This was my son, I reminded myself, and Obi-Wan had made sure to stress that point and that he had nothing to fear from me. I felt so much more gratitude to Obi-Wan in that moment, it would destroy me to be feared and hated by my own dear son.

"Unidentified Imperial Shuttle – this is Alderaan Planetary Control, please identify yourself," A sharp and demanding male voice came from the control board and I sat there for a moment, just looking at the speaker in a moment of rare hesitation. I wanted knowledge of my presence here confined to a select group of people, all but one were down on the planet now, "Repeat, identify yourself at once, you are-…"

"I am the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Military, Darth Vader and for your sake, the sake of your family and your entire planet, I do suggest that you don't finish that sentence," I replied, unleashing my annoyance – and I smiled when I heard an actual gasp from the other end, "The Emperor would not take kindly to your planetary defensive grid shooting my shuttle down, I am expected by the Viceroy. You would do well to send me the coordinates to the Winter Palace and I suggest that you do not speak of this to anyone, your bodily health depends on it."

"Y-Yes Lord Vader, I'm sending the coordinates now," The operator stuttered uncontrollably and I smiled again as the path to the palace instantaneously came to my shuttle and the connection was shut off. I didn't suffer fools all that much – especially the self-important fools who turned into stuttering, sobbing cowards in the presence of true power. There were too many beings in existence like this, but I had to remind myself to pull my temper back, there were no cowards or fools in the place that I was about to go. Organa might have been a fool in the sense of his political leanings, but he was not a fool like that controller. I knew all too well that his convictions and the passion that he had for them would not be coupled with cowardice. It was certainly  _brave_  to hide my daughter from me for five long years.

I was sure that Organa knew exactly what I would have done to him if I had found out sooner. I would have subjected him and his little arrogant wife to unforgettable torment and after I was finished doing it myself, I would have taken my little girl and protected her from all harm. The task of keeping her safe would have been very difficult, and I was sure that I would have probably been so blinded by my rage that I would have failed to remember that I had _nowhere_ "safe" for her. A Star Destroyer was no place for a child, and the palace would have allowed my master to get his claws into her without me even being aware of it. I suppose that Obi-Wan was once again the only reason that I didn't go absolutely berserk, level Alderaan and take my daughter. It was unbecoming of me to be feeling this way at all, I was a Sith Lord and I needed anger to even touch my power. My appearance, my life, and the fact that I didn't get to see my children was a reminder of a nice source from my anger: my beloved master. I gripped the yoke of the shuttle so tightly that I thought it might break – the accursed bastard would never know what hit him.

* * *

**Dagobah…**

**General Point of View**

Something had shifted in the Force.

It was subtle and very small – but the more that Jedi Master Yoda pondered the feel of the shift, he realized something – small though the shift was – it was a very important shift. Yoda had watched the Force itself be permeated with the slick, oily presence of the Dark Side of the Force for several decades, but something had changed now. He had never been one to embrace emotions when they welled up inside of him. He hadn't been that way for eight hundred years and he wouldn't start now, but in the solitude of his exile on the swamp world, he allowed himself the smallest of smiles in satisfaction. When he touched the shift, he knew what it was instantaneously, and he knew in that moment that his enemy had made a miscalculation. The future was always in motion and he couldn't be sure if it would end the way he was hoping that it would. But one thing was certain, there was hope now – hope that the damage being inflicted on the Galaxy by the Sith would end soon, and things would return to their natural state. He was hopeful now that if he had to die on this world, he would die knowing that he hadn't left the entire Galaxy to darkness.

He had made a promise to the Emperor that he would not let the Jedi die out, and now… now he had something bigger to grasp onto. It was something that only served to strengthen his belief that the order he had devoted his entire life too would not be lost to history. Touching the shift again, he discovered something that would undoubtedly enrage the Emperor and it was something that pleased him. Darth Vader wasn't Darth Vader anymore, he could tell that much from his view on the plain of the Force, but he wasn't Anakin Skywalker. He had either abandoned or lost touch with the core fundamentals of the Sith teachings, because when Yoda observed him, he still bore the taint of the Dark Side, but in the center was a shining beacon of light. Given time, the beacon would grow and consume the taint of the Dark Side of the Force, if events unfolded like that. If he knew his  _real_ enemy, then he could feel the exact same thing, and he would be maneuvering now to stop it before it began.

But it was of no consequence to him at the moment, he could not do anything about it until the Force willed it so. Until that moment, he would have to bide his time and wait – and would he make sure to begin to gather his strength for the times to come. Events were in motion that he knew he would play a part in.

He only needed to wait now

 


	6. Chapter Six

**Chapter 6**

Keeping my robes close around my body as I stepped out onto the landing pad, I tried to force the deep-seeded scowl off of my face as I looked up into the serene blue-sky and tried to find Vader's presence. I had to keep in mind an overwhelming fact about this meeting with him, I had to keep in mind something that was true, despite the blooming and growing hope that I had felt for the future. He was still Darth Vader, he was still a Sith Lord, he was still the chief servant to the Emperor of the Galaxy, and he was still very prone to irrational and completely random bouts of anger that usually resulted in the painful death of the poor fool that crossed him. Unfortunately, right now - the Viceroy was in Vader's path. I, at the very least, could defend myself to a point, maybe even defeat him, but everyone else would be at the subject of Vader's very rare, and very, very small capacity to have mercy. I knew that if I didn't want death to occur, I'd have to stay on him constantly.

Even as the Imperial Shuttle descended from the sky, and Vader's very dark mind came into clear focus for me, I knew that I would probably be the only person that could restrain him from killing everyone in the palace. I came to believe this in part because when I probed his presence in the Force, very amazingly without the slightest bit of resistance on his part, there was something lurking under his dark, oily mind. It actually made my breath catch in my throat to feel it after such a long time away from it. It was something that I had not felt in quite some time and something that I was sure that I would never feel again in this life. Under all of his corruption, Anakin Skywalker was still there, the beliefs that he had been raised with and his capacity for treating others with kindness was still there, but buried. It would take a push and shove in the right direction to completely uncover it, and perhaps – just  _perhaps_ , pull him away from the Emperor, the one who buried it first.

I'd already taken the biggest gamble that I had ever taken in perhaps my entire life, I had already played all my cards and wagered the very future of the galaxy by revealing myself and revealing the existence of his children to him. Bail was literally risking everything, his home, his family, his planet and most assuredly, his very life. If Vader had fooled me, which was not beyond the capacity of a Sith, then we had lost before we had begun. Unbeknownst to Bail, I already had a very quick escape route planned out in my mind, something that I gotten into the habit of doing whenever Luke and I stayed in one place for any extended periods of time. It was designed to give me enough time to extract both of the children before Vader or anyone else, could get to them. If Bail knew that I was prepared to get Luke and Leia out of the palace, off of the planet and out of the system within an hour, then there was the very likely possibility that Vader would be able to see it too. No, there was no need for the Viceroy to know about it. Hopefully I would never have to implement those plans. Still, as the landing struts extended on the shuttle, I couldn't help but be filled with an overwhelming sense, a sense that I knew very, very well.

It was the foreboding sense of doom.

* * *

In another lifetime, I would never have even considered entertaining the thoughts that were now running through my mind at the sight of seeing her for the first time in years. The effect of stepping down the boarding ramp, and seeing her, and only her, there caused everything at the edges of my vision to fade out, but not in a fit of rage – no, I wasn't in a rage at all. When that very familiar and very childish urge to run to her came, I quashed it down with all of my willpower and attempted to steady my heartbeat. She was a bold one, she always had been, there were not many people, and certainly not that many surviving Jedi, that would have the courage, let alone the gall, to wear those robes and to have lightsabers on clear display to anyone. I would never punish her for her presumption, because she had presumed correctly. Of all of the Jedi that had managed to survive my efforts, she would be the only one that would never face my wrath, for two very obvious reasons.

She had been, and would continue to be, apart from Organa, the one influence in my children's lives that would keep them from suffering the fate that I had suffered in my life. Unlike other Jedi, I knew with absolute and complete certainty, that she only had their greatest and best interests at heart. The other reason had become clear to me on my journey into the system: she had always been one of the most important people in the life that I had lived. Even when I made the transformation to Darth Vader, her voice was always in the very back of my mind, chastising me, telling me what I was doing was wrong on so many levels and no matter how much I tried to quiet it, it would not go away. She was very much one of the two loves of my life, Padme was gone and she was gone forever - there was nothing that I could do about that now. For my part in her death and for certain things that I had done and will still do, I would always feel something of a deep and unmovable guilt.

Obi-Wan was still here though, she was still very much alive.

I watched as the right corner of her mouth twitched up into something resembling a smirk as she finally lowered her arms from her chest to begin the walk towards me. I would have to be blind to not notice something very strange about Obi-Wan, something that, for as long as I had known her, had never been true or at least never had been a big issue. She had never been vain, it was simply not in her nature - she understood and indulged in some vanities in the past, yes - but it had never been something noticeable. However, the difference from the Kenobi that I knew, and the Kenobi that was now standing before me, was very startling. It was logical to assume that in her life on the run, she would have had to allow her looks to go or to suffer - but in truth, they hadn't, she looked very good. There were signs of the stress that she would have had to endure over the years, but overall, she still looked impeccable and every bit the Jedi Master that she had been for many years.;

"Darth Vader," She bowed her head slightly and raised a single brow, "I trust that you're well?"

I bowed my head in return and struggled to find something to say that wasn't tinged with the awkwardness, but how could this not be awkward exactly? Our last meeting years ago wasn't so pleasant. What could I say? When I was young, or more specifically, when I was young and healthy, words were easy for me, being sociable was easy. Three limbs, countless agonizing skin-grafts, and hundreds, if not thousands of deaths of my conscious later, I was a different person. We were both different people – so the fact that I was utterly at a loss with my words was not surprising in hindsight. Honestly though, how difficult could this be? This was Obi-Wan Kenobi, this wasn't some lowly servant, or a subordinate that I had tolerate. We had known each other for what seemed our entire lives. We were even still bonded, amazingly, and it was clear as day that the bond was still there - in such a close proximity to her and with bearing her no ill will, I could feel it there, subtly, still pulsing after all this time.

"I am...  _well_ ," The awkwardness that I was feeling couldn't really translate through the vocal mechanism of my protective helmet very well, but I knew, by her smirk, that she could feel it in the Force. "And yourself?"

"Oh, I'm feeling better than I have in a long time, a long time," She nodded and then a serene smile came upon her face as she seemed to look me up and down. "Yes, things are indeed looking up."

* * *

It began quite suddenly.

I was a master practitioner of the arts of the Dark Side of the Force and thanks to the many efforts of my many spies and servants – I was able to study the darkest and most archaic practices of the Sith Lords of the past. As a result of studying those rituals and powers, I had developed a very sensitive acuity to the plain of the Force and its smallest of movements. When massive disturbances occurred, or when powerful practitioners of the Force made themselves known, I knew about it almost instantaneously and I could usually find where the disturbance took place. With deep concentration, I could possibly see for myself who had caused the massive disturbance to begin with, and that was why I felt the need to rush out of the briefing room the moment the disturbance in the Force hit the edges of my senses. Someone with that amount of power at their disposal, someone that ability to create these waves in the Force was someone who I needed to watch very closely.

Like a massive tidal wave, I felt the disturbance wash over me and it actually left me breathless – to the point where I was sure that I would stop breathing. I fought down the urge to actually show panic and awe at the feeling, it was unbecoming of both the ruler of the Galaxy and the Lord of the Sith to demonstrate such emotions, especially in front of witnesses. Sith had no fear, they had no awe, but the inspired both and struck terror into the hearts of lessor beings. It was very rare that I found myself on the opposing side of that tradition, and even though I was sure what I was feeling was indeed fear, I wasn't sure what was causing it. Something in the very recesses of the Dark Side of the Force was calling out to me, warning me of things and galaxy-shattering events that were to come. I didn't understand though, what force was there that could pose a viable threat to me? That assertion was ludicrous at bust and completely absurd at worst. The Jedi were dead and whoever remained could not possibly topple the Empire alone - the various mystic sects of practitioners of the Force spread out throughout the galaxy were either going into hiding, or joining me, there was no one left to oppose me. Glancing up at Admiral Yqueal Raxton, who'd stopped his briefing on the under goings of the armed forces to look at me in curiosity when I didn't seem to respond him, I quickly quashed the urge to leap over the table and strangle him with my bare hands.

I did not need to be in public right now, if it was noticeable to the very, sometimes imperceptible, Admiral Raxton, then it would indeed be noticeable to virtually anyone.

Removing my hands from the arms of my chair, I stood up - feigning the smallest bit of grace and outwardly projecting the illusion of calm. That, at least, was something that had survived my decades of having to tolerate being the consummate and model politician. I hadn't been able to fool some of the most powerful Jedi alive for decades and not walk away with a skill that would probably last me until my final days. I would need it more than ever right now, I couldn't admit, not even to myself, that the size and scale of the disturbance in the Force had alarmed me, I was to be untouchable and unshakeable. I was the most powerful being the galaxy, in terms of concentrated and refined power, but this being, this being had the potential to be even greater then I. Through the Force, I could practically taste the raw, unkempt power that this being had and only at the very smallest, and deeply quiet levels of my mind could I admit that with training, it could possibly end me.

"Your Majesty?" Admiral Raxton questioned nervously. "Is everything alright?"

I nodded at him and waved a hand dismissively at his pathetic and very, very false concern for my wellbeing. I still could not comprehend why these fools still insisted on playing the hollow games of politics with me? I could easily see through their false words and through even their smallest of manipulations, "I am quite alright Admiral, but I'm afraid that I have another engagement right now, I'm sorry for the conflicting schedule, but it must have slipped my mind - is this it for the briefing?"

He knew better than to answer with anything but yes.

There were only some circumstances when I allowed people to even hint that they disagreed with me in even the slightest way and this was not one of those instances. If it was not the end of the briefing, he could deliver it to the right people and they would finish it and if they saw anything of importance, they would inform me at another time. Without even waiting for his answer, I turned on my heels and attempted to quicken my pace out of the door without drawing attention to the fact that I wanted to run out of the room, and slowly began to submerge myself in the currents and eddies of Dark Side of the Force. I could not find my concentration on this planet, the whole of Coruscant teemed with the overwhelming presence of trillions of lessor life forms, it was the same problem that I had experience in my years as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic – I would have to go off world to find my concentration, I would have to go to a place that was drowned in the Dark Side.

* * *

"It… has been some time since I was here," Vader commented slowly as we both stepped out onto the terrace outside of the Viceroy and the Queen's audience chambers. It was truly a beautiful sight to behold under normal circumstances, giving one a complete view of the Alderaan Winter Palace's legendary gardens. However, even the beauty and the serenity that the gardens and the very sight of the gardens inspired could not shake the pure surreal nature of this moment and my ever increasing anxiety that would continue to rise until the Organa's made themselves known. Vader could very well kill the both of them the moment he his eyes on them and the chaos that would follow would be insurmountable and very, very bad.

"The Sirax Assignment," I replied absently, tracing the horizon with my eyes. "That had to be eight years ago by now."

Rylon Sirax had been a mercenary that had been paid by the IGBC and several seedy figures within the leadership of Kamino to assassinate Senator Bail Organa for opposing the Clone Wars. That had to be a recurring theme throughout the war and something that we must have put a stop to a hundred times. There was even a similar attempt on Padme Amidala sometime afterwards. It was something that Anakin and I had been used to dealing with and it frankly surprised me that after everything that had happened since then, he remembered that assignment. Just as I was about to comment on that, I heard the door to the terrace slide open and I felt the presence of both Bail and Breha come through.

Inwardly steeling myself for the confrontation, I nudged Vader in the Force and turned around to meet them. As I noticed the big, hulking frame of Vader move with me out of the corner of my eye, I studied the faces of the rulers of the planet and they were what I expected them to be, pictures of horror, loathing, fear and very reluctant acceptance at the situation that they were facing. It was a good thing that they understood the importance of what had to be done – it was very good that they understood that Leia's only hope to come out of this alive was, like it or not, her father, Darth Vader.

"Lord Vader," Bail bowed lowly. "On behalf of my wife and I – we would like to welcome you to Alderaan."

Vader folded his massive arms over his chest and I knew that he was sending a death glare at Bail from behind the confines of his mask, "Yes – it shall be an eventual stay, tell me – what is my daughter's condition?"

" _Our_  daughter's condition is stable for the moment," Breha hissed at him and I couldn't control the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose.

This was a bad idea.

* * *

She was so small.

She was so small, and she looked the very picture of helplessness.

There was a very strong part of me that wanted to take her away from all of this, to take her away from the inferior care of the Organa Family and give her the best care in the entire galaxy, but that side of me was quickly overridden by Obi-Wan's voice in the back of my mind. I knew, deep down, that it was best for her to remain here, with these people and to be under their care and supervision. Bail and Breha could give her love, care and attention that wasn't possible for me to give right now and as far as medical treatment went, it was best if she did it here, where she was safe. Laying a hand on the protective glass, I dipped my head slightly and tried to send calming waves through the Force at my unconsciousness child.

Was this a punishment? What more could the Force take from me?

Were my children paying for my sins?

 


	7. Chapter Seven

**Obi Wan's Point of View**

"I cannot believe that you are allowing this, that you're just standing here, letting  _him_  be alone with Luke, with Leia,  _with both of them_!?" Bail was almost foaming at the mouth in absolutely fury. It had been building the moment Anakin had touched down on the planet, and it wasn't likely to change until the  _moment_  that he left it.

I gazed out at the landscape and pursed my lips.

What would Bail have me do?

Anakin Skywalker had been stubborn to the point of a migraine, and Darth Vader, I imagined, was no better. Vader, I could easily surmise, was stubborn to the point of wanton murder. That act, those feelings, that dark wave that had overtaken her the last time she had seen him in person, was something that couldn't be allowed here.

Not in front of those children.

"Like it or not Bail, he is their father," I turned and affixed him with a bit of irate glare of my own. "Do not forget that, and do not forget that Leia will live because he laid down his anger, his hatred and his fury at  _us_  to save  _her_  life - don't forget."

I placed my hand on my hip and turned to face him completely, my expression much more calm and far more pleading then it had been seconds ago, "Don't abuse his mercy, or his change of heart, I beg of you. He will not take it out on the children, he  _might_  even take it out on me, but he  _will_ rake you across the coals."

In my mind, I could see the planet burning, destroyed by fires set by the Imperials.

If Bail denied Vader the right to see his children, even after all of the overtures of peace that he had gone out of his way to give, Vader would burn the planet to the ground. What would happen afterwards was hard to see in my mind's eye. I didn't need to see a possible future to know that he would abscond with the children then.

What would happen to me in such a future wasn't something I could see?

"I don't trust him, not after what he did!" Bail snarled defiantly at me.

And I could not help but gawk openly at him.

One the one hand, he had a point,  _obviously_.

His bitter demeanor though was shocking.

This was the man that had led the drive against the war effort, attempted to gain peace and oppose the Emperor. This man was a man of peace, a man of principle and a man of undying devotion to the idea that all beings should leave in freedom.

Now he was reduced to a stark raving madman, enraged at the idea of letting the being that had arguably precipitated the end of freedom near his own to children.

It was terribly disheartening.

"Anakin may have dealt the death blow, but the Republic was dying a slow death long before you and I were born," I informed him calmly, trying to deflect his anger off of Anakin. Anakin, Vader, whoever he was, did not need it right now, the children did not need it right now, if our plans were to  _survive_ , it  _couldn't_  happen.

And slowly, but surely, I could see Bail's face deflating.

He knew that I was right.

We were all to blame for what happened, countless Senators, countless Jedi.

We had  _all_  fallen prey to grand designs of the Sith Order.

Bail had to see that in the being that was once Anakin Skywalker, we had a chance to change all of this. If it happened slowly, or if it happened rapidly, it did not matter, the Skywalker Family was a chance to defeat the Sith and make everything right, they were our only chance. If we could not count on them, all had been lost.

"Go spy on them if you wish, but do not directly interfere," I shook my head and held a finger up to him. "Everything, the entire future, depends on them meeting."

With more and more of Anakin's old humanity being brought to the surface, the ultimate demise of Darth Vader drew closer.

With it would come the salvation of the Jedi, the Republic and the entire galaxy.

Everything needed to be perfect for it to work.

We just needed to be patient.

* * *

**Darth Vader's Point of View**

It was surreal.

Luke was like a mirror image of me at that age.

Down to our physical resemblance and our love for mechanics, he was my son through and through. That was the truth, that was the only truth of the matter and as time went on, I would discover more truths. Truths that would bring me indescribable joy, indescribable pleasure and lift me out of this torrent of misery.

That presented me with immeasurable challenges, ones that I would deal with later.

I wasn't going to ruin this moment.

"Are you going to help her?" Luke asked from beside me as we observed his sister.

Eventually, we were going to have to tell the Princess as well, if she lived.

That would be a discussion that I was resolved to have with Obi-Wan in the room.

There had been a time in the far past when this wouldn't have been a problem, and I would have been confident in my ability to speak with him. Perhaps even Obi-Wan would have been needed back then if we were going to have a discussion like this one. Then again, it wouldn't have been a problem back in those terribly busy days.

Back then, my children would have known who they were, and who I was.

Obi-Wan had did her best though, in a bad situation.

A very bad one.

Looking down at the innocent eyes of my son, I knew why she had done it.

This boy, he was powerful, extremely so, just waiting for someone to come along and mold that power into whatever shape that they saw fit. If he had fallen into the hands of the Emperor, he would have been molded into a weapon from the start.

If he had been in my hands, I could easily train him to kill the Emperor.

Not responding to him, I looked back up to Leia and scowled.

The idea had occurred to me, fleetingly, and I dismissed it completely.

They had been protected and shielded at all costs, and they had many purposes left in life. None of those reasons involved him, or Leia, kneeling to me with the corpse of the Emperor laying between us. No, they would not be turned, and not by me.

"Of course," I attempted to convey my smile as best as I could. "It will be alright."

I laid my hand on Luke's shoulder, and my smile painfully grew when I felt him explode with happiness in his Force Presence. He was a boy, a boy who simply wanted the approval of... me - and that was something that I wasn't at all used to.

At least not with the approval being tinged with abject fear.

But at least one of my children didn't fear me, that was all that I could ask.

* * *

**Obi-Wan's Point of View**

I rolled my eyes and continued to sip my caf.

The Dark Lord of the Sith, and his five year old son were chatting about ships and parts as if they were discussing the weather. What was annoying me slightly was the fact that Luke had managed to get in a few shots at me about not providing him with enough of either of those things, much to his father's dark amusement.

"Engine parts are expensive," I tried to adopt my typical sage-like tone that I had adopted with Anakin got this way with me. "Too expensive for you to tinker with."

Anakin's son or not, I wasn't going to waste money for very expensive parts for a five year old, just so that he could break them and have the money go to waste.

"I had the money to do that when I was his age," I turned to lock eyes with Vader, and I could feel him boring holes into me. "I was  _enslaved_ to a Hutt and I still did."

I fixed him with an wry look, "Things are slightly worse for the two of us."

I silently noted that Luke did not even bat at an eye at the slavery revelation.

I would have to make a note to talk to him about it later.

"It's very expensive living like we do!" I defend myself as I was on the receiving of two Skywalker glares. That was something that I didn't wish on the most evil being in the entire galaxy. "I try to scrape together the credits - but sometimes I can-..."

"Then perhaps I should provide the money for his hobby?" Anakin suggested.

With his vocal enhancer, the question came out as more of a  _purr_.

I raised a single eyebrow in response.

I didn't object to the idea necessarily, I could only assume that in his dual roles as the second most powerful man in the galaxy and student to the Emperor, he was indescribably wealthy. Any credits that he could afford to give to me would probably be nothing, and if they were substantial enough, he probably would not notice it.

"I-..." I began to attempt to try and form some sort of response.

The door to the chambers that we were sitting in slid open, and all three of our heads all turned simultaneously to the door. I could sense the urgency in the mind of our guest, and his underlying fear over having to face the occupant to my right.

"Master Kenobi, Lord Vader," I smiled slightly at the man in an attempt to alleviate his fear, but I sensed it did nothing of the sort, if anything, his fear grew in leaps and bounds at the sight of Vader. The man bore awful news, that much was clear.

Based on his appearance, he had to be a senior technician in the medical lab that was caring for Leia. On older man, with graying auburn hair, the insignia on the upper right hand side of his uniform also identified him as corporal in the Militia.

"What is it Doctor?" I assumed a serious tone - a massive change of face for me.

"There's been a revelation regarding the Princess's illness, and Viceroy had ordered me to fetch the two of you," He replied and turned to bow his head at Vader. "This also does concern you Lord Vader, there is something we think  _you_  need to see ."

I nodded and turned back to Luke, "Sweetheart?"

"Yeah - yeah," Luke grumbled. "I'll go find the Queen's handmaidens."

I smiled and leaned forward to ruffle his hair.

All the while, Vader was silent, and I feel apprehension rolling off of him in waves.

* * *

**Darth Vader's Point of View**

"My Lord, Your Excellency, Master Jedi," The Chief Medical Officer charged with the wellbeing of my daughter bowed to the three of us as he stood in front of a holo-projector. I gave him a simple nod and folded my arms across my chest in return.

The man needed to get on with it.

"What was so urgent?" Organa asked from the other side of Obi-Wan.

He nodded and turned to activate the projector, "As you know, you ordered us to isolate a single strand of the illness that Princess Leia has contracted. You wanted to know if we could attack the virus at the cellular level. An hour ago we finished the full spectrum analysis, and we discovered something quite troubling within it."

I watched as what appeared to be a cellular nucleolus came onto the projector.

If my breathing could have stopped it would have, because I instantly recognized the genetic signature that was clearly present inside of the nucleolus itself.

"What is that?" Organa let out a surprised gasp. "That cannot be natural."

The Doctor adopted an accusatory look and turned to me, "Lord Vader?"

I paid him no mind though.

I paid no mind the fact that the only noise in the room was my respirator.

I paid no mind to the feeling of the eyes of both Obi-Wan and Organa on me.

The Imperial Intelligence Service had attempted to _assassinate my own child_  with a virus that  _I_ ordered created, one that I helped  _design_  for that matter.

And there was the very real possibility that they already accomplished their goal.

No one could shake me into awareness because of that.

 


End file.
